Persona 5: Bitter Fool
by Slasher71
Summary: He would never regret the choice he made that night. He knew what he did was right. Helping someone was never the wrong choice. But a powerful man decides to crush the life of Ichihara Tadashi. Friends turned on him, his parents pushed him to someone they didn't even know. He comes to Tokyo hoping to serve his time and move on with his life. But trouble isn't done with him yet.
1. Chapter 1 - An Unwelcome Change

**A/N: I hate starting off with a Message but I just want to preface this story with a few... hmm warnings? More to prepare you, the reader, for what this story is going to be and more about my main change that people will likely have a problem with. So here we go.**

 **First off, I'm not going to be using the name of the protagonist that is used in the anime or the manga. Why? It's because I believe that people gain a certain vision of how they see a character and attach it to that name, so when somebody comes along and characterizes them differently it can be hard to separate it. So the protagonist here is named Ichihara Tadashi. The meaning of his name also fits him a lot better for who he is and the story as a whole.**

 **Second, As with all of my work, the personalities of the characters and Tadashi himself will cause things to change in the story.**

 **I have a lot of reasons for wanting to write this. Though mostly it came due to a friend (Who I met on here consequently) and him urging me to do this. I want to address my inactivity on my other stories too but I'll do that after the chapter. For now, let the tale of my take on Persona 5 begin!**

* * *

 **Chapter 1 / An Unwelcome Change**

 _Monday / April 11th, 2016 / Cafe Leblanc: Attic / Early Morning  
_ _Ichihara Tadashi_

I opened my eyes to the dark ceiling above my new bed. A bed that I had been surprised that I even had, with the changes in my life. Considering how I am typically treated by most people as of late. Honestly, how was I even allowed this comfort? How did Sakura Sojiro put it? Oh right, " _It's what you get for sticking your nose where it doesn't belong_." Yeah, good to know coming here wasn't really going to change anything. At the very least, I no longer had to see my parents and their hypocritical faces. I was supposed to do a lot with my life, apparently. Mother thought I had some chance to get into a good college and become something big… like a doctor or something. Hell if I know. My Mother didn't care why I had been arrested. None of that even mattered anymore. After all, the assault charges against that man would stick with me for the rest of my life. Even if I never touched him. I don't even have a clue as to who he is or what he looked like. It was too dark to really tell, and things happened so quickly.

Overnight I could no longer go to my High School… and only one school in all of Japan would even take me. Shujin Academy in Tokyo. And my bastard Father just shook his damn head, conveying how disappointed he was. Like I ever fucking sought his stupid ass opinion or approval. My parents never really cared about me. They never really allowed me to have any hobbies that didn't relate to my studies or baseball, if it didn't add anything meaningful to my future then it was abolished. That was how my life had always been. _Ichihara Tadashi was going to be something_ , that was what my parents always bragged about. Maybe a doctor, maybe a star baseball player. I had certainly been well rounded in my education and in participation of sports. And now all of that was gone. Why? Because I decided to stand up to someone who was abusing a woman. I was simply on my way home from a party with the baseball club when I came across that scene.

Tch, I shouldn't think about shit that will piss me off right when I wake up. I sat up and put my legs over the side of the bed and put my feet on the ground. There was still a load of junk up here in the attic of this cafe. Still I suppose it was nice to be alone. Sakura-san had his cafe business downstairs but his actual house was a block or so away. Not too far but still it meant I would be alone at night. There was some supplies for the cafe up here, but a lot of it I could likely get rid of. I had only cleaned up a minor portion of the room last night. That way I could have some semblance of a livable area. I would say this is a step up from my room at my Parent's house. Then again anything was better than staying with those assholes.

I mindlessly reached over and picked up my phone and checked the time. I was more than fine on time. Hmm? It's that creepy red and black eyeball app that keeps showing up on my phone. I just uninstalled it last night. What the hell was this thing? I shook my head and dragged the icon to the trash on my phone's OS and then put my phone down. Last thing I wanted to deal with was some stupid ass virus or adware on my smart phone. Well, whatever. I best get changed and maybe get something to eat before heading to school. I got to my feet and pulled the school uniform off a hangar I had placed on the side of the shelves. Which was placed next to my "bed" if you can call it that. Clearly this new room of mine hadn't been thought all too much about before shoving me up here. But wasn't going to complain considering I had a place to sleep at all to begin with. Either way, I quickly began to change into it.

Yesterday had certainly been… annoying. More useless adults that all wanted nothing to do with me. Obviously I was just a bad kid that had no hope for a future. No one cared to listen to me or even want to know why I was in this situation. Sakura Sojiro, the one who agreed to take me in had more or less been the same way. And it sounded like he hadn't been in a position to really refuse taking me in. Maybe that was why he put me up here in an attic and far away from his home. The Principal seemed to think taking me was a way to boost the reputation of the school. Rehabilitation of a known criminal or something like that. I don't get it. My teacher… Kawakami, I think it was. She looked like she wanted nothing to do with me. But she also looked incredibly tired. It didn't matter though. Everyone has their reasons for what they do. Even if it means not listening to people. I don't really give a shit about what people say about me, because I know what I did and I wasn't wrong. And nothing any of these idiotic people say is going to change that part of my mind.

I sighed as I finished buttoning up my jacket and then slipped on my glasses. This school uniform wasn't all that bad. Normally I wasn't much of a fan when it came to plaid. The red plaid trousers didn't look all that bad, but I enjoyed more the simplicity of the white turtleneck shirt and a black blazer with red buttons. My hair was a bit of a mess as it usually was but I gave up caring about it a while ago. Not like my appearance would matter if everyone found out why I was transferring to this school. Not that I cared if everyone knew though. No amount of knowing could reverse the decision already handed out by the court. And as a matter of public record, anyone would be able to easily find out anyway.

Shaking the pointless thoughts from my head I headed to the stairs down to the cafe. Sojiro-san stood behind the counter and seemed to be finishing some morning preparations for his store to open. With my bag slung over my shoulder I stopped at the counter and looked to him.

He noticed me but didn't look up as he seemed to be prepping some coffee… or something. I wasn't paying that close attention to it.

"Oh, so you actually are going to school?" He looked at me and I just met his eyes with a blank stare. I hardly cared for what he thought about me or my situation. But I am grateful that he took me in. Even if he had his own situation that forced him to do so, I didn't need to start off a year long stay with him with ill will. At the very least I want to have a place I can come back to that is relatively peaceful. So despite his comment making me want to reply sarcastically I just kept my damn mouth shut. "Here, I'll feed you. Just make sure you finish it before the customers start coming in." Sojiro-san then put up a plate on the bar, and a glass of water.

I eyed the plate of food for a moment, "So...curry...?" I couldn't help but be somewhat amused as I sat down into the chair.

"What's that reaction for? Just eat it," Sojiro turned away and went back to doing his morning prep work.

When was the last time I even had anything that wasn't reheated in a microwave or something like that? I picked up the spoon and took a bite. My eyes widened for a moment as I took time to enjoy it. It was really good, maybe some of the best curry I had ever had. The flavor was complex but it was also spicy but not overpowering that you couldn't taste the other flavors. That was often a mistake that a lot of people made. Sometimes they would make curry too spicy that it just masked any other flavor that could be there. But this... this curry made an amazing balance between it… adding just enough spice without losing the overall flavor. This had to be damn near perfection. Before I had realized it I had quickly devoured the curry and rice, not leaving a single thing behind. I downed the water and when I put it down he was coming over to take the plate and everything away.

"It's time for you to go," Sojiro said as I made note of the time on the clock on the wall.

"Guess so. Thanks for the meal, it was delicious," I spoke simply. Though those words hardly portrayed how much I had actually enjoyed the meal. "Better than any curry I've ever had."

"Thanks," Sojiro said only pausing for a moment before taking the dishes to the sink. "Hurry over to school. You'll end up late if you get lost on your way."

"I think I have a general idea of how to get there, but if I get lost I'll just ask an officer," I say.

"Right, have a good day," he said and so without another word I moved to leave the cafe. "Oh, flip the sign outside to OPEN for me."

"Okay, got it," I opened the front door and left the cafe. Closing it behind me I flipped the sign to OPEN and stepped out into Yongen-Jaya's backstreets. I sighed as I looked up into the sky. Cloudy day huh? Feels like I hadn't seen the sun in the sky for a long time. Maybe I was just paranoid. I shook my head and started walking down the alleyway towards the train station. I was surprised I had managed to find this place when I first got into town. I lived out in the middle of nowhere for most of my life. I guess my trips into the city for those baseball matches had made it a lot less overwhelming then it might have been otherwise.

"Another one's happened. Just yesterday, there was that train accident. This could mess up the schedule again. If you're going out today, try to leave earlier than usual," I heard the voice from a radio. I stopped to notice an old man listening to an old boom box radio from a bench.

The old man shook his head, "Accident... That would never have happened if they weren't slacking off."

I kept moving towards Yongen-Jaya station. I did catch on the news that there was an incident in the subway. I didn't think it would still be affecting the schedule but I guess I should have thought about it a bit more. I made my way to the station and down into the subway. There were a lot of people here. I knew it would be crowded I just didn't realize how crowded it would be. I really did underestimate Tokyo and what I had heard.

Before long I was crammed into the subway train to the point that I was pressed up against the door and had no leeway in which to move. How can you even fit this many people into such a tiny car? Tokyo subway trips really are no joke. Well at least they have the news showing up on the LCD screens around the subway car. They are just covering the accident from yesterday though and how its still affecting everything. Maybe I should have left earlier...I really might be late at this point. Then we were at Shibuya station. Thankfully this was my stop and I was glad to be able to get out. Now from here I have to transfer to the Ginza line to go the rest of the way to school.

What a mad house this place is. Then again the town I was from was incredibly smaller than this. And I had only been to Tokyo a few times. Now I had to fucking live here... great.

Getting off the train was one thing but before long I'm going up stairs and trying to follow the signs to the Ginza line. What a pain in the ass. Fortunately the signs are somewhat easy enough to follow. That is until I realize the path they led me to is completely blocked off. Hold on... don't tell me that is where the accident happened? Well there has to be another way around.

Nothing can ever be simple, can it? I feel like the whole damn world won't be satisfied until it takes a giant shit on me. I mean what else in my life can go wrong? I end up having to go up another set of stairs. Fuck the escalators, that just takes longer with people in the damn way. Then I ended up going up and around again through the station square before I finally find a roundabout way to the Ginza line in the Teikyu Building. Fuck.

Thankfully it wasn't too long. I think. Who knows how much more I'll be delayed. Last thing I need is to be late on my first day of class. Getting lost is one thing… and I thought I had enough time in case I did but if the train schedules were delayed then that gave me less time to figure out where I was. I eventually got onto another train, although this one seemed more crowded then the last. And too late to get a seat... great! I just enjoy being pressed up against the goddamn door. I don't know how but I managed to deal with it until we arrived at Aoyama-itchome. The doors opened and I stumbled out and feeling free again. Please just let me get to school without further incident for just this one fucking morning. I could see a collection of girls with Shujin uniforms standing nearby so I had to be on the right track. I left the subway station and found myself looking at rain pouring down.

I quickly rushed under one of the nearby store covers, "Fuck me, rain… really?" I swore as I watched it coming down. I barely noticed that someone had moved next to me. I glanced over and noticed her wavy blonde hair that was split into pigtails. She also had on the Shujin Academy blazer, but she had on a hoodie underneath it. She also had vibrant red tights on her legs. She looked… in a word, beautiful. She noticed me and looked over and gave a small polite smile. Her eyes were blue. If I had to take a guess she seemed to be half Japanese. Probably too much postulating on my part though. Also what business was it of mine anyway? Want to get slapped in a hurry? Ask a Japanese girl if she is actually Japanese.

I looked away and pulled up my phone. I didn't need to bother some girl that I just ran into. No point in trying to make friends, especially when they find out about me they likely want nothing to do with me. Just like my supposed 'friends' at my previous school. As I did so the sound of a car stopping pulled my attention.

"Hey, do you need a ride?" a man from the car called out. I glanced from him to the girl, knowing he wasn't talking to me.

"Sure," the girl said after a pause. She looked at me for a moment and then made her way to the car and into the passenger seat. Not really sure what I should have made from that glance though. Did she not actually want to go with him?

The man looked at me, "How about you?"

I shook my head, "No, I can manage."

The man nodded and started rolling up the window. I paused for a moment as I watched the girl before I lost sight of her completely. She didn't look like someone that appreciated getting a ride...

"Get back here you damn pervy teacher," another individual came running up and stopping next to me, looking at the car that was now out of sight. "Tch."

"Pervy teacher?" I said still holding my phone in my hand but looking at the new guy in front of me. He had short somewhat spiky bleached hair.

He turned to me, "...What do you want? You plannin' on rattin' me out to Kamoshida?"

"Kamoshida? Should I know that name or something?" I raise my eyebrows.

"Huh? In that car just now. It was Kamoshida," the guy said as if I should know this fact. "He does whatever he hell he wants. Who does he think he is-the king of a castle? Don't you agree?"

"The King of a Castle, huh? I don't know who he is, but he sounds like an ass," I say wondering if this guy was going to get the hint that I was new to the area.

"No, I mean..." he stopped and finally looked at me. "Wait. You don't know Kamoshida? Are you for real? You're from Shujin, right?"

"Starting today, yeah. I take it you go to Shujin too," I was stating the obvious at this point considering his pants were the same as mine. Although this guy had on a bright yellow shirt with some sort of black and red star on it. And the bleached hair certainly gave a certain tone to him.

"What...? No other high school's got a uniform like this," he noted my uniform for a moment. "A second-year, huh... We're the same grade then. Never seen you before though."

"Did you miss the part where I said this is my first day?" I ask somewhat dryly.

"Oh, you a transfer student?" he shifted on his feet for a moment. "Then no wonder you don't know him. This rain ain't too bad. We better hurry up, or we'll be late."

At the very least I can follow him to school. As soon as he turned something happened and a pain shot through my head. "Ugh...God Dammit!" I swore again. Why did I feel lightheaded all of a sudden?

"Uuugh, my head hurts..." the guy next to me groans. Wait, him too? "Dammit... I wanna go home..."

Then he started moving. I had better keep up with him at the very least he knew where he was going. I sighed and put my phone back in my pocket as we took some back alleys which I assume was a shortcut to the school.

"What?" the guy stopped. I followed him and we were... in front of a castle? "What is going on? We didn't go the wrong way. The school should be right here."

Except there was no school... it was definitely a castle. The odd thing was it didn't look out of place. It was as if it belonged here. Wait... how is this even possible? "Don't tell me we got lost," I muttered under my breath hoping I was somehow hallucinating.

"Only real thing to do is ask what's up. Come on, let's head inside," the guy motioned for me to follow. I had no real reason to do so, but something about this felt off. I had better stay with him for now. My body felt alert, like something nearby was dangerous... I needed to be alarmed. A randomly appearing castle would definitely be cause for alarm.

Of course, something weird or stupid had to happen. Why couldn't anything just go as it is fucking supposed to go? No, just when you think you got it all figured out is when everything goes to shit. The inside of this place didn't offer any immediate answers either. A grand staircase and a surrounding made of stone, just like you would expect of a castle. and there looked to be a massive painting at the top of the stairs. The subject looked vaguely familiar...

My bleached hair companion looked more and more freaked out by our surroundings than I did though. "Th-That's weird... Where's the school...?"

"Okay so if this isn't the school... where does that leave us?" I ask as I stopped and looked around. Black and white tile floor, red carpet leading to a grand staircase and even a fancy chandelier over us. And the place wasn't lit with electricity but instead hundreds of candles. The design was European in nature. I didn't know much about castle interior design, but this place was definitely out of place.

"This SHOULD be the school... I think..." he pulled out his phone but he frowned. "Out of service? Where'd we end up...? The sign out there was for the school, right?"

He's right, the sign at the entrance had absolutely said Shujin Academy. That was why all of this was confusing. I had just been to this school yesterday to meet that tub of lard principal and I'm not nearly delusional enough to not notice if the school had been a fucking castle or not. That just left the stupidly obvious question, "What's going on here?"

"I-I dunno! I wanna know!" he said somewhat defensively.

"Take it easy, I was being rhetorical. But you've been going to school at Shujin since your first year, right? I doubt you would make a mistake or get lost trying to come to school. Unless you are trying to pull a prank on the new kid," I gave a slight shrug.

"Why would I do that? I didn't even know you were a new kid until just a few moments ago," he was being defensive again.

"I know that, I was being sarcastic. Anyway, let's just try to figure things out for now," I tried to diffuse the situation as it wouldn't help to be agitated with each other. Though I had no idea what this guys name was. But one thing at a time. As we spoke I noticed something moving from the doorway to the left of the staircase. It was... a knight? A knight in full armor? What the fuck? He even had a goddamn sword.

The bleached haired guy jumped back a bit but then it seemed his mind made a conclusion that there was a reason for all of this and calmed himself, "Geez, you freaked me out... Who're you? You a student?" He took a closer look, "Man, your costume's impressive... Is that armor real?" The knight stood there... there was no way to know where it was looking, it had some sort of mask on. "C'mon don't just stand there. Say somethin'."

Then another knight, identical to the first stepped out towards us. Just what in the goddamned hell was going on here? This was not normal, no matter how you looked at it. No matter what kind of drugs you were on you wouldn't consider this to be normal.

"...H-Hey, what's goin' on?" the guy nervously took a step back towards me.

"I don't think this is fake," I said as I glanced towards the door we had entered at. Could we make it if we ran? The knights had to be weighed down... so we should be able to beat them... right? "Shit."

The knight stepped closer, sword looking ready to strike.

"...This shit's real," the guy said after a moment. The two knights stepped closer again. "C-Calm down! Time out, man!" He glanced to me, "We gotta run!"

"Thanks for the idea, anything else?" I say only sparing a glare towards him.

"Fuck, man. C'mon let's run!" he made a dash towards the front door but the moment we both were moving, two more knights stood ready in front of the entrance. "Ugh, what's with these guys!?" Then a knight came behind him and knocked the bleached haired guy to the ground with his shield before either of us could react. "Oww... Y-You're gonna break my bones, dammit! Who the hell do you think you..."

Before he could do anything the knights closed in on us. And hit me from behind. I only had one thought before I blacked out. "Fuck."

* * *

 _Monday / April 11th, 2016 / Location Unknown / Time Unknown  
_ _Ichihara Tadashi_

"...Hey. Hey! Wake up!" A voice was right next to my ears.

I groan as I sit up and grab my aching head, "Please don't yell. I don't think my head can take it right now."

He nodded as I looked up. Wait...now we're in some sort of prison cell? This place really was a castle after all. Even comes with a dungeon for prisoners. How lovely.

"You all right?" he asks after a moment.

"Mostly. How about you?" I asked looking up at him.

He moves his arm a bit, "Yeah, more or less." He turns around and looks at our surroundings before shaking his head. "Looks like this ain't no dream... Ugh, what's goin' on!?" He then rushes over to the bars on a prison cell and starts banging on them. "Hey, let us outta here! I know there's someone out there!"

Understandable reaction but pointless. Still... what the fuck was going on? Castle's don't just suddenly replace a school overnight. Irritated by the noise of my companion I yelled at him.

"Cut it out. You're wasting your time," I call over to him which thankfully makes him stop. He turns and comes back towards me. Normal people aren't calm in a situation like this. So why the fuck wasn't I freaking out right now? No, screw that. This was precisely the time I needed to think, not panic. For the sake of the situation there was no point in discrediting what was happening. So lets look at the facts. The school was replaced by a castle... one with actual knights in full armor and swords. As far as we had experienced there was no reason not to believe they were the real deal. They had incapacitated us and thrown us in a dungeon cell. The question is how did we get to a castle? It was from when we left the side of the road and cut through the back alleys to get to the school... so something crazy happened in transit right? And if there were no other people from school here... that had to mean only we had arrived at this place. Something seriously fucked up was responsible for this.

"Dammit, where are we!? Is this some kinda TV set...?" the guy suggested.

I shook my head, "It's far too elaborate and this material is too real. Even the smell is musty and damp like a dungeon would be." Let's just leave out the slight remnants of likely urine that was also involved in that smell. Fuck this place.

"The what the shit is..." he started but then we hear a loud and long scream. The two of us quickly moved to the end of the cage and looked around to find its source. But after a moment it stopped. "The hell was that just now?"

Wait, is that running water? This place... it was far too real. What the fuck? Then there was another scream... and maybe the sound of... Jesus, was someone actually being tortured down here!?

"Whoa... Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa... You're shittin' me, right?" he was shaking his head. "This is real bad... Isn't there some way outta here!? C'mon, we gotta do something!"

"Yeah but what in the hell are we supposed to do?" I turned and looked at our prison cell. "That's brick and even if we could break through it, it just leads into another cell. And those chains on the wall aren't exactly there for relaxing measures. And that cell door looks to be made of cast iron and unless you got something like a flamethrower we aren't getting out without a key. Well maybe if we had something that could pick a lock or the hinges were stupidly placed on the inside but they aren't. We need to have some good solid tools to pick a lock on a cast iron cage like this."

"Well we have to be able to do something!" He wasn't really helping the situation. Then again I was out of ideas.

"I'm open to suggestions. Feel free to chime in with something useful instead of fucking panicking," I said a little bit irritated.

"Wha-wait! You hear that?" he suddenly says before I realized that two guards approached our cell. they were knights... but because of their outfit it was hard to tell if they were the same ones that had captured us before. I doubt that mattered though.

"Be glad that your punishment has been decided upon," the guard spoke... and his voice had an odd echo to it. Strange. "Your charge is unlawful entry. Thus, you will be sentenced to death."

"Say what!?" my bleached haired companion's eyes widened.

I felt myself let out a sigh, "Yeah, sure. Why the fuck not?!"

"No one's allowed to do as they please in my castle," a new voice entered. They also seemed to have an echo like quality to their voice but it had an air of authority to it. They approached the cell and I didn't know what to think. They had a golden crown on their head and had some sort of cloak? It had hearts all around it and looked much more elegant than it probably had any right to be. It currently covered his body, and his hair... I remember it from somewhere.

"Huh? Wait..." the guy next to me seemed alarmed and obviously recognized the new individual. "Is that you, Kamoshida?"

"Hold on, you know this guy?" I ask him.

"Heh. I thought it was some petty thief, but to think it'd be you, Sakamoto," the golden crowned asshole spoke. "Are you trying to disobey me again? It looks like you haven't learned your lesson at all, huh? And you brought a friend this time... because you can't do anything for yourself."

"This ain't funny, you asshole," Sakamoto said. Funny I thought the same thing about this guy with the crown. Well... Kamoshida was supposed to be a teacher at Shujin, right? I don't think that really helps me figure out anything more about this situation though. I mean, we're inside a fucking castle and as far as I know we hadn't left Tokyo. And with how authentic the armor of the knights were this would be way too much for some elaborate prank. Don't tell me that shit called the Velvet Room was actually real too? That bullshit dream hadn't been just me going fucking crazy because of my new life here? Just what kind of bullshit had I gotten myself into this time?

"Is that how you speak to a king? It seems you don't understand the position you're in at all. Not only did you sneak into my castle, you committed the crime of insulting me-the king," the one known as Kamoshida grinned. "The punishment for that is death."

"Wasn't his punishment already death?" I say dryly and somewhat pissed off.

"Shut it, commoner. It's time for an execution! Take him out!" Kamoshida ordered his knights.

"S-Stop it...!" Sakamoto backed up from the bars and so did I. They opened the door and we retreated to the far back of the cell. "...Goddammit...!"

Was this real? Were these knights really going to kill Sakamoto and I? All I wanted to do was to live out a fucking year in peace and put that garbage with that stupid ass man behind me. I can't change the past, especially when no one will listen to you. But was life really going to end here in some dungeon cell… in a place that shouldn't even fucking exist? I should be in school being bored out of my fucking mind with some piss poor teacher that treats me like garbage. Although I guess you could say the directness of this was an odd change of pace... but not a welcome one.

Sakamoto then charged one of the knights and surprisingly sent him flying onto his ass. I realized that these knights weren't using swords but spears. Not exactly smart choices for a confined space, "I ain't down for this shit! C'mon, we're outta here!" I'm surprised he looked to me. Even with all of this he was actually concerned for someone other than himself. That makes him a hell of a lot better than any of my would be 'friends' before I had come here. But before we could do anything another knight stepped up and hit Sakamoto hard in his gut with the hilt of his weapon. I couldn't do anything. I was in a bad position. "Nnngh... Owww..."

I grabbed one of the knights from behind as they try to surround Sakamoto. This was such bullshit. And you think I'm just gonna sit by?

"Just go! Get outta here...! These guys are serious!" Sakamoto was yelling at me to run off.

"Fuck you! I'm not the kind of person that leaves someone behind to save their own skin," I called out somewhat angry.

"Forget me! We don't even know each other! C'mon! Hurry up and go!" He desperately called out for me to give up on him. Leave him to die? Save myself? Give me a break. I had the choice to do the same back then too. Ignore the couple fighting, just pass by and head home like a good boy. Let a women suffer because it isn't my goddamn business. Let something happen even though you know its wrong because it isn't your place... you don't have a personal stake in it. Fuck that fucking shit. My morals aren't that goddamn cheap and you can kiss my ass if you have a fucking problem with it.

"What's the matter? Too scared to run away?" the crown wearing Kamoshida taunted me. "Hmph, pathetic scum isn't worth my time... I'll focus on this one's execution..."

The knights picked him up as the one known as Kamoshida punched Sakamoto across his face. And then punched him a few more times, "Lowly scum! Useless pest!" His fist hammered down and caused Sakamoto to fall to the ground. I couldn't move as one of the knights now had a sword drawn on me.

I felt my hand curling into a fist. Was I really supposed to just stand here and watch this? Was there really absolutely nothing I could do?

"Hmph, where'd your energy from earlier go? A peasant like you isn't worth beating. I'll have you killed right now," Kamoshida tossed Sakamoto away from him.

"Stop it! You asshole."

"Hm? What?" Kamoshida turns to me and moves close to me. "Don't you dare tell me you don't know who I am. That look in your eyes irritates me!" He slams me back against the wall. "Hold him there..." Two knights quickly put their arms on me and constrict me to the wall. "After the peasant, it's his turn to die." Kamoshida laughs as he turns his attention to Sakamoto.

I blink and something happens...a voice enters my head. A voice of a young woman, " _This is truly an unjust game... Your chances of winning are almost none. But if my voice is reaching you, there may yet be a possibility open to you..._ "

" ** _What's the matter...? Are you simply going to watch? Are you forsaking him to save yourself?_** " Another voice...this one more mysterious than the last, provoked me. While I struggled to push myself away from the knights to help Sakamoto. " ** _Death awaits him if you do nothing. Was your previous decision a mistake then?_** "

"Fuck that! I never made a mistake. I would make the same decision every fucking time!" I cried out.

" _ **Very well... I have heeded your resolve**_ ," the voice said.

Something happened. I felt something in my head. It was like a pain but it wanted out.

" _ **Vow to me!**_ " The voice cried out. " _ **I am thou, thou art I... Thou who art willing to perform all sacrilegious acts for thine own justice! Call upon my name, and release thy rage!" I felt it...it was painful..and all I could do is scream out as I tried to make sense of what this voice was telling me. "Show the strength of thy will to ascertain all on thine own, though thou be chained to Hell itself!**_ "

It stopped and I finally understood.

"Execute him!" Kamoshida cried out pointing at Sakamoto.

"That's enough!" I called out. And a wave of power seemed to roll off of me. I don't know what was going on, but it was my turn. And I had fucking had it.

"What was that?" Kamoshida and one of the other guard turned to me, surprise apparent on Kamoshida's eyes. The guard let go of Sakamoto and they turned to me. "You desire to be killed that much...? Fine!"

The knight next to me slammed his shield across my head, causing my glasses to fall to the ground away from me. The guards pressed me against the wall again as the other knight grew closer, sword ready to strike. He brought his sword into the air but then I looked up and a rush of power came from me pushing the guards back so slightly. Then I realized something was different. I... could see? My glasses were on the ground but I had clear vision? I was near sighted so this was... weird. I put my hand up to my eyes and... huh? What was it on my face? A mask? Then I understood. I had to take the mask off.

"I have never ran away my whole life. I don't give a shit who or what you are!" I firmly gripped the side of this mask and started to pull. Then it started to give. God it hurt... it hurt like a goddamn bitch! But it had to go... because this was who I am. I ripped it off and screamed as it came free and then looked up at Kamoshida... blood running down my face. But then something started surrounding my body and I felt it coursing, releasing from my body.

" _ **Hahahaha!**_ " the voice returned as this strange blue like flame covered my whole body and then it changed my outfit. The guards were flung away from me...and the one called Kamoshida cowered and then immediately made his escape from the prison cell. Standing behind me was a being cloaked in crimson. " _ **I am the pillager of twilight-'Arsene'!**_ "

"What the...?" Sakamoto eyes were wide. Couldn't blame him. It was hard for me to believe and I was the one it was happening to... and yet this felt right... it felt like... me.

" _ **I am the rebel's soul that resides within you. If you so desire, I shall consider granting you the power to break through this crisis**_ ," Arsene glanced to me.

"Then grant me your power, because there is no way I'm going to let this shit continue," I said meeting his gaze.

" _ **Hmph, very well...**_ " Arsene seemed amused.

"Who the hell are you!?" Kamoshida called out from the entrance of our cell. "Guards!" The Guards I had knocked to the ground got to their feet in response. "Start by killing that one!" He pointed at me. Wait hold on... was he really only wearing a pair of pink underwear? What the actual fuck? How did I not notice this before? No way in hell I'm dying because of someone dressed like that! The Guards then seemed to explode and turn into ...two jack o'lanterns? Each with a wizard looking hat and carrying a lantern. What in the fucking hell? Whatever, bring it the fuck on.

" _ **Detest the enemies before you! Change that animosity into power... and unleash it!**_ " Arsene spoke.

"Trust me, I got animosity to spare!" I growled. I spoke the name that came to me. "Persona!" Arsene then appeared before me to launch an attack that nearly devastated him immediately. I then realized... that up my sleeve... was a knife. Ohh... now this was good. It slipped out from my sleeve and into my hand as I spun its handle around my fingertips.

" _ **Swing your blade!**_ " Arsene spoke once more. I did so without hesitation, attacking the same creature again and this time utterly destroying it, as it disappeared into a black mist. " _ **This power of mine is yours! Kill them however you want. Run wild to your heart's content!**_ "

"Now you're speaking my language! Persona!" I hit the remaining creature with the ability from before, but this time it completely devastated it and it disappeared into the black mist and then there was nothing left behind.

"What..." Sakamoto was looking at me, completely baffled as to what to say.

Can't say I could blame him. still I mindlessly spun the knife in my hand. Wait... red gloves? Just what in the fuck was I wearing anyway? And I had the mask on again... I guess it was on when I wasn't using my Persona. Whatever the fuck a Persona is. Whatever, it's power is something we need at the moment.

"What was that just now...?" Sakamoto still looking at me. I put the knife back up the sleeve it had come from and I glared over at the one known as Kamoshida.

"You little...!" he came towards me but Sakamoto shook his stupor and got up and slammed his shoulder into Kamoshida causing him to fall to the ground.

"You like that, you son of a bitch?" Sakamoto gloated.

Wait he dropped something, "Quick grab those keys! Let's grab out stuff and go."

"Got it!" Sakamoto said as I snatched up our bags that were near the entrance and we got out. We pulled the gate to the cell closed and after a couple keys Sakamoto managed to find the right key and locked the gate. "OK, it's locked."

"Damn you!" Kamoshida yelled as he finally was able to recover and get to his feet.

"Hey...! What was that just now!? And... your clothes...!" Sakamoto said but just as he said that my strange new outfit disappeared and I reverted to my school outfit. "Whoa, it went back to normal."

"Dude, I don't fucking know," I shook my head.

"You bastards!" Kamoshida yelled from inside his cage.

"God, this's effin' nuts!" Sakamoto looked to me. "Anyways, let's scram! You lead the way!"

I had to agree with him. Whatever power I had was likely the only way we'd get out of here at this point. Though I'm not sure exactly what it was, it was better than where we had been a few moments ago. Sakamoto threw the keys away and we ran off.

"Goddamn thieves...! After them! Don't let them escape!" Kamoshida was calling out as loud as he could to any guards that might be in the area. "Y-You bastards!"

"Let's get the hell out of here," Sakamoto said and I was more than ready to comply. We both made our way away from the cell. "Any idea where to go."

"Not really but I can take a guess. Come on we'll have to hop across that broken bridge," I said pointing up ahead of us.

"Just keep moving, I'll stick close behind. We don't know how long until more of those guards show up," Sakamoto cautioned. Yeah he was right. No time to stop and figure any of this shit out. Just needed to keep moving.

We moved relatively quickly but at the same time we did our best to keep the noise down. It was a bit of a pain when we had to jump across the water on some steel cages. Especially since it was easy to lose your footing on something like that, especially since it was slick from water. We managed to make it to the other side though with no real injuries to speak of. Still it was hard to tell if we were making progress on getting out or we were going deeper in. At the very least that Kamoshida was no longer aware of where we were. We hid behind some boxes further along avoiding being seen by guards going by.

"Christ, you think they are looking for us?" Sakamoto whispered.

"Or looking to see where their precious King has gone. I think we are okay for the moment. Although this whole situation is a load of shit," I said as I let out a long sigh.

"Yeah, none of this makes any goddamn sense," Sakamoto nodded. "Still any idea what happened to you back there?"

"Something called a Persona. I don't really know. Either way it saved our ass so I'm not about to complain about it," I said and took another deep breath. I pushed my glasses up... now that I think about it... did I put my glasses back on... or had they simply appeared there when that outfit was gone? This shit is real confusing. I swear that knight back there had knocked my glasses off my face.

We finally made our way to a staircase and managed to go up. Though it was disappointing when we went out the door at the top. It looked no different than the place we had come from. Just how massive was this place? But as we moved forward...we heard more cries like we had heard before.

"We really did hear people screamin'... So we ain't the only ones who got captured!" We saw a couple people over the top of running water... but that water wave moving with a powerful force. There was no way to get across safely... and those cages the people were in were hanging over top of it.

"I hate to say it but we can't do anything for them. We'll have to keep going for now. There might be some sort of mechanism up ahead," I say as I move past them. They were crying for help. God dammit... how am I supposed to just ignore this shit? There has to be someway to get them. There was a bridge ahead... but it was up and unusable. Fuck my life. I stopped in front of it and looked around. Just what the hell were we supposed to do? And we were at a goddamn dead end.

"Dammit! How the hell're we supposed to get outta here!?" Sakamoto kicked the wall. I don't blame him in the least. I was losing my cool too.

"...Hey, you there," Someone called out to us. "Blondie! Frizzy Hair! Look over here!" I looked to the source in the last prison cell and saw... a cat?

Wait what? That wasn't right... it was standing on its hind legs and its eyes were comically big. And he had a yellow scarf around his neck. Just what in the hell? I've seen enough weird shit today. I'm totally close to being completely checked out.

"What is that thing!?" Sakamoto came from next to me.

"You're not soldiers of this castle, right!? Get me out of here!" he... it is a he right? Anyway, it was definitely talking to us... and a pretty straight forward request. "Look, the key's right there!" He pointed to the wall.

"We're trying to get the hell out of here...! I mean, you obviously look like an enemy too!" Sakamoto was skeptical. I mean... we had seen a lot up to this point and who knows what to believe now.

"I'm locked up here, so how can I be your enemy!? Help me out!" he looked up at me.

"Quiet down, getting louder isn't going to fucking help any of us," I said with a sigh.

"I'm begging you; you have to help me!" he spoke but we also could hear the sound of armor moving in the distance.

"They're catchin' up already...!" Sakamoto was alarmed but we were already at a dead end so we didn't have anywhere to go but backwards and this had been the only real path we had seen up to this point. Sakamoto pulled out his phone, "Shit, there's still no service. Ain't there any way to contact someone outside? How the hell do we get out...!?"

"Hey, you two! You want to know where the exit is? Let me out and I'll take you there. You don't want to get caught and executed, right?" the cat like creature did seem to know something. Still it was better to be cautious.

"I don't think we have much of a choice, but you better not be lying," I said eying him.

"I'm not lying! It's the truth!" he pleaded.

"This thing sounds like it's all talk..." Sakamoto sounded skeptical too. That's good. Still we were already cornered.

"If you guys think you can get out on your own, then be my guest!" he said after a moment.

"Whadda we do...?" Sakamoto looked to me. The sound of armor was getting louder. "Are you seriously not messin' with us!?"

"If you don't hurry, they'll catch you," the cat creature... thing, said.

Sakamoto looked to me. I shrugged, "We don't exactly have many options. And trusting him might give us a better chance than trying ourselves."

"Yeah, you're right," Sakamoto said as he went over to the keys on the wall and then unlocked the cage for the strange creature.

"Ahhhh... Freedom tastes so great..." the strange creature grinned.

"Now, where's the exit, you monster cat?" Sakamoto asked.

"Don't call me a cat! I am Morgana!" he said defensively.

"Shuddup and hurry it up! You wanna be locked up again!?" Sakamoto was hardly in a mood to get into particulars and I agreed with him.

"A-All right, sheesh!" Morgana then took a few steps. "Follow me, and stay quiet." We followed him back to the bridge and he indicated to the strange statue of Kamoshida. "Hey Frizzy Hair, you got to have it figured out right? Check his jaw."

Well Morgana wasn't exactly tall so I understood why he asked for help. I moved up to the statue...and sure enough the Jaw of the status seemed off...so I gave it a pull and...the bridge moved down. "Son of a bitch. I should really take a closer look at this stuff."

"Let's get moving," Morgana said as he moved across the bridge and to a door.

We moved through and right in front of us were guards.

"A-Aah! Shit... Shit, it's them!" Sakamoto stumbled back.

"Tch... You amateur! Stay still!" Morgana jumped in front and I felt my clothes change again to that outfit I had on before. Morgana looked back at me and seemed impressed. "You can fight, right? Let's go! Come...! Zorro!" Then like the power I had shown Morgana had shown a power of his own. But his was mostly in monochrome and held a rapier in his hand.

"You got one of those things too!?" Sakamoto seemed like he couldn't get a break. Me either.

One thing at a time.

"We will promptly shut them up," Morgana said as he held a sword over his shoulder...wait...where did he get the sword from? Ah screw it...just focus on taking them out. "Damn Shadows... they've taken up intercept positions! It means they're holding nothing back and are serious to kill us! I'll back you up, so fight like your life depends on it! Let's go!"

"As if my life hadn't depended on it from the start! Arsene!" I said and blasted the jack o'lantern that had appeared.

"Hmph, I knew you were an amateur," Morgana seemed a bit smug. "This is how you fight!" He then used his Persona Zorro to smash wind against the same enemy, but this time he caused it to fall to the ground.

"I don't have time for a lecture," I said as Morgana launched another attack and obliterated the jack o'lantern enemy. I instead pulled out the knife from my sleeve and attacked the last enemy. Morgana followed me up and we quickly destroyed the enemy... which I tried not to think about its appearance... it had been some sort of red demon... thing. Not important.

"Not bad. Your Persona's pretty powerful," Morgana said as I put my knife back up the sleeve.

"Persona...?" Sakamoto repeated "Y'mean that thing that comes outta you guys all dramatic-like?"

"Yeah... it certainly is dramatic," I scratched my head.

"Yes. You saw how Frizzy Hair here ripped off his mask when he summoned it, right? Well, everybody wears a mask deep within their heart. By removing that..." Morgana was explaining but as he did my outfit reverted once more to my school uniform.

"Huh...? He turned back to normal..." Sakamoto noted.

"Hm, it looks like you don't have full control over your power yet. The transformation shouldn't normally dissolve like that. After all-" Morgana was obviously knowledgeable.

"Rrgh, that's enough! This crap doesn't make any sense!" Sakamoto shook his head.

"Morgana, you may know what you are talking about. But for the sake of our sanity can we keep moving please?" I pleaded.

"Good idea. Come on, let's head this way," Morgana said as we headed onward...and hopefully closer to the exit. We ran past a bunch of doors by Morgana kept moving. So far he had seemed trustworthy. No reason to fight alongside us if he was just leading us to a trap. Still the sooner we got out of here the better.

"Hold on a sec," Sakamoto came to a stop. There was another cell...but there was someone inside. Whoever it was, they were wearing a jersey of some kind. "I feel like I've seen what this dude's wearin' before... Dammit! I'm too flustered! I can't remember a damn thing!"

"Come on, let's go," Morgana urged.

"Hold on, dammit!" Sakamoto said.

"We don't have time for this Blondie," Morgana pressed again.

"I have a name dammit, it's Ryuji!" he snapped back.

"What is it? We need to go, fast!" Morgana was probably right. Staying out here for too long would only get us caught.

"But... who are these guys?" Ryuji indicated the guy in the cell.

"Do you really think you have time to worry about other people right now!?" Morgana was growing impatient.

From a logical stand point he was certainly right. The smartest thing to do was to ensure our own safety.

"Besides they're..." Morgana started but was interrupted by the sounds of guards behind us.

"There!" A guard shouted.

"Time to move!" I called out.

"No time, we have to fight!" Morgana said and I couldn't get away. Dammit. My clothes changed again... and we were thrust into battle once more.

What was with this crap? I just wanted to go to school today. Why the fuck can't anything ever go the way it is supposed to? I guess my frustration was good because the power of my Persona completely obliterated one of the guards in an instant. Morgana didn't waste any time following suit and thankfully the threat was over before it had ever really began.

"Alright, let's get away before more show up," Morgana urged us to leave.

"Hold on, we can't just leave these guys here..." Ryuji started.

"He's right, if people are trapped here then..."

"You guys don't get it do you? Look there isn't time to explain. I'm going. If you don't want to follow, be my guest!" Morgana then started taking off.

"Dammit... Fine, I'm coming!" Ryuji took off after Morgana. I hated to admit it but it seemed Morgana knew something... and maybe saving people here was more complicated than we knew. I looked at the guy in the cell before I jogged to catch up to them.

We made our way through a door and to a staircase.

"The entrance hall is right above here! The exit's close... Keep it up!" Morgana led us across the hall to a side room. "We're here!"

"Finally! We're saved...!" Ryuji let out a sigh of relief before rushing to to the door to try an open it. "...It's not openin'! D'you trick us, you jerk!?"

"Don't jump to conclusions. Over here," Morgana opened a different door and led us inside. The room had several book shelves filled with various books. Wait where did we need to go from here?

"Where are we supposed to get out from here? There aren't even any windows," Ryuji was looking around.

"Ugh, amateur.." Morgana shook his head. "This is the most basic of basics."

I looked up to the top of the book shelf. Oh I see what he meant. "A ventilation shaft? Really? Why the fuck would a castle even have one of those?"

"Still you're right. I'm impressed. You seem to be a natural at this," Morgana grinned. I have no idea if I should take that as a compliment and I really don't care at this point.

"As long as it gets us out of here, I don't care what you say," I groan and shake my head.

"Well it does lead all the way outside," Morgana assured me.

"I see..." Ryuji nodded. "Then we just gotta get that metallic mesh off." Ryuji jumped to the top of the book shelf and gave a solid yank on the mesh and sure enough it came off...although Ryuji didn't have the most graceful of landings. "Seriously, we're finally gettin' outta here...!"

"You should wait on celebrating until you actually get out. Now get going," Morgana urged us once more.

"But... what about you?" Ryuji asked.

"There's something that I still have to do," Morgana answered. "We're going our separate ways."

"Well you held up your part of the bargain...so good luck in...whatever you are doing. Just don't get caught again," I said after a moment.

"Heh, you better be careful too. See ya," Morgana said as he watched us quickly move into the vent shaft and hopefully making our way out of this nightmare location. When we crawled out... we were no longer in the castle... as a matter of fact... we were exactly where we had started before.

Before we had even tried to make it to school.

"Did we make it...?" Ryuji asked.

I pulled out my phone to check the time... and I saw that damn app again. Except a female voice suddenly came from my phone. "You have returned to the real world. Welcome back."

"Huh? Returned...?" Ryuji looked just as confused as I was. "Does that mean we got away?"

"Man, I don't fucking know a damn thing. Look at the time... how in the hell am I going to explain this shit?" I shook my head. Sakura-san was going to kick my ass if I didn't at least make an appearance at school today. Shit, just what in the fuck had I stumbled myself into?

"I don't know what to think anymore," Ryuji sighed. "What was all that anyways...? That castle, and Kamoshida, and that weird cat! The hell's goin' on?"

Naturally our confusion and raised voice got the attention of some officers. "What's with the yelling? Are you students of Shujin? Cutting classes, are we?"

Great, that's all I needed to do on my first day of school... miss half the day. And for a reason that no one in their right mind would ever fucking believe. Sure I get arrested and get charged with assault and no one believes me then. Like hell anyone would believe this bullshit happen. Whatever, I'm fucking done.

"Huh? No!" Ryuji said, although I had more or less given up on trying to fight it. "We were tryin' to get to school, and we ended up at this weird castle."

"...What?" The officer glared at Ryuji.

"Don't bother, Sakamoto," I said after a moment.

"Hand over your bag. You better not be doing any drugs," the officer seemed irritated. As if he was the unlucky one having to deal with us.

"Why would you think that!?" Ryuji was understandably annoyed by the accusation.

"Are you his friend?" The other officer asked me.

"Something like that," I said, unsure of what to say. I would say we are more than strangers at this point considering the shit we saw together.

"Then you should go to school. Take him with you," the other officer insisted.

"Like I'm tryin' to say... I don't know what's goin' on either!" Ryuji was still arguing with the other officer.

"We passed Shujin on our way here. There was nothing out of the ordinary about it. If you spout any more nonsense, I'll contact your school. Is that what you want?" the officer was raising the stakes...typical passive aggressive bullshit.

"C'mon, say somethin'!" Ryuji looked to me.

"Just drop it and let's get going, okay?" I said and walked off. There was no point in trying to explain ourselves to people that wouldn't listen to begin with. We would just have to figure out what happened later... on our own. Thankfully Sakamoto relented and followed me off and the cops simply shook their heads and continued on their way. Even after all the bullshit we just went through... I'd have to face whatever crap would happen when getting to school.

* * *

 _Monday / April 11th, 2016 / The Velvet Room / Time Unknown  
_ _Ichihara Tadashi_

My eyes blink open and I find myself in a familiar place once more. No, I wasn't in the attic of the cafe. Once more I find myself in a jail cell, but this one was notably different than the last. This was a place I had seen before.

"...About time you've come to," a young girl with a stern voice spoke to me and slammed something against the cell. "On your feet, Inmate!"

I can't even fucking sleep like a normal person. Am I just doomed to be tortured for the rest of my goddamn life?

"Our master wishes to speak with you. It's for your own sake that you take his words to heart," A similar yet somewhat emotionless voice spoke next. That's right, these two young girls were Caroline and Justine. Wardens of this place, called the Velvet Room. Though it was a prison, not much of a room.

Despite myself I got up from the prison bed and made my way over to the cell door and rested my hands against it... having to struggle a bit against the chain on my foot. This was a load of crap in my opinion. So this power I awakened to was connected to this place? Why they hell did it have anything to do with me? And I bet they likely knew all about the little adventure I had today with Ryuji and that talking creature named Morgana. I was supposed to just mind my own business and live a normal school life. The more things moved... the less it seemed possible to do that.

"First off, let us celebrate our reunion," The Master of this place, Igor, shuffled his positions and looked at me. His nose...was stupid long. Was that kind of length even possible without drooping down? It was oddly gravity defying in nature. "Oh...? You've awakened to your powers. And special ones at that. Your rehabilitation can finally begin."

"Excuse me? My rehabilitation?" I scoffed. Nothing was wrong with me so what was with this garbage? Another adult that thought he knew my life better than me? Maybe think I am making the wrong decisions? Fuck that.

This somehow amused Igor instead, his grin went lopsided as he gazed at me, "There is no need to understand it all for the time being. You will be training the power of Persona, which you have awakened to. Personas are, in other words, a 'mask'-an armor of the heart when confronting worldly matters. I have high expectations for you."

I've heard that line before. Whatever. Persona was the being Arsene that had gave me power to fight, right? But it was also a part of me? What fucking ever. "How can you have high expectations for me when I don't even really know what you are talking about?" I shook my head.

"There is no need to worry," Igor shifted his posture. Though he did seemed amused at my confusion. "You will learn when the time comes."

So this was on some sort of need to know kind of bullshit? Not that I expected anything less from any adults in my life. Even ones that are seemingly only in my goddamn head.

"By the by... have you come to appreciate the Metaverse Navigator?" Igor asked using a term I had never heard. But my mind immediately jumped to that app that kept fucking installing on my phone out of nowhere. "Using it will allow you to come and go between reality and Palaces."

"To what and what? I don't know anything about what you just said," I shook my head. "What is a palace? Or a Metaverse Navigator?"

"It is something I bestowed to you as a means to train you as a thief," Igor said using yet another term that I felt had no place in a conversation with me.

"I am not a goddamn thief," I was starting to feel pissed.

"The Metaverse Navigator is a gift from our master! You better take care in using it, inmate!" Caroline glared at me.

"I didn't ask for any goddamn gift," I met her glare head on.

"Devote yourself to your training so that you may become a fine thief," Justine added.

"Why do you keep saying that? I'm not a thief," I felt like I wasn't being listened to at all.

"It must be disheartening to make use of the Metaverse Navigator alone. Should there be others who would prove beneficial to you, I will grant it to them as well," Igor insisted, ignoring my words completely. However, my frustration only seemed to amuse Igor that much more. "This is all for you to grow as a most excellent thief..."

"For the last fucking time! I'm not and won't be a goddamn-"

Then a bell went off somewhere. Caroline spoke next, "Hmpf, it's time. Go back and enjoy whatever rest you might have..."

I felt my surroundings going dark. You know what... fuck the Velvet room. Fuck Caroline and Justine... and especially fuck Igor. I have no reason to ever become a thief. None whatsoever.

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **Hello, guys! And welcome to the premier of Bitter Fool. I know it's been a long time since I've posted anything and that I should really get to finishing Last Symphony (More on that in a bit) but I figure with the release of P3D and P5D as well as Joker's announcement to join Smash as a DLC character that releasing this chapter would be kind of fitting. So here we are. Now a bit of explanation:**

 **Bitter Fool is going to be rated M. The reason for this is mostly because Tadashi is incredibly foul mouthed because of how angry he is at... pretty much everything. I have loved my time with Persona 5, but there was things that stood out to me, and most of this comes from the usual problems I have with these games because the protagonist is a stand in for the player. The silent protagonist has limitations but they did alter a lot of that in Persona 5. And this comes in the form of giving the player a pre-established history from the outset. Well... mostly.**

 **The game starts by setting it up that our protagonist was wrongfully convicted when he did what he felt was right. Protecting someone who needed it. It all feeds in to the games main theme but that's a different topic, the point here is that the hero has been unjustly punished and is now being upheavaled and shipped off to the only school in Japan that will take him. His parents or relative send him out to live with a complete stranger for that time period where he'll serve his parole. However there are also other things that the game doesn't say or establish that also leave some glaring gaps for the protagonist backstory but we can fill these holes just filled on the details the game doesn't tell us.**

 **He's from a smaller town and was walking home from somewhere, likely his school. But it was also later in the evening so its likely that he had stayed for either a school club or hanging out with friends. The later being less likely as during the whole game we have zero contact from anyone from the protagonists hometown. His parents also never communicate with him at any point, even just to check in and see how his parole is doing. And he clearly doesn't have any siblings either. It's an obvious omission that is somewhat understandable with the tradition of Persona protagonist having little real background. The exception to this would be Persona 4, where it firmly establishes not only his parents but an Uncle and cousin within the game. And at times Dojima makes references to the protagonists parents which can indicate that Dojima still contacts them, even if the P4 protag does not. Even Persona 3 firmly gives establishment that his parents are dead and he was a lone survivor. And a seemingly throw away line makes reference that he been shifted around between family and foster homes before coming to town. What do we get in P5? The protag is sentenced and then shipped off to stay with a stranger and very little is said in the regards to his parents or any other relations he might have had in his home town. It kind of irks me that this was how it went. It made me feel like maybe the protag didn't have anyone that cared for him at all. No friends, no family that came to his defense. People around him just _accepted_ that he had assaulted this man and believed it. This is where the whole idea for this fan fic came into view.**

 **Just how accepting would he be after that? Would he really want to continue to help others? What person was he that would continue to do what he believed was right even though everything around him believed he was wrong? Like I said at the top I wanted him to be distinguished and different from other conceptions (plus at the time I started writing this I wasn't even aware he had any official name, manga or otherwise) and so he was Ichihara Tadashi. And he is Bitter as all hell about the world and what exactly is even the point of the effort he puts in to things.**

 **I also have issues with the presentation of other characters in the game, such as how Haru was really underdeveloped and some other things that didn't make sense to me. Like Morgana's whole running off late in the game which made Haru's introduction and somewhat shoehorned method of entering the group. Either way I will cover those in future chapters.**

 **For personal updates for people that follow me... I have been dealing with a lot of things in my life. Work has been crazy as I got a promotion and have been locked down on that. But also I've been dealing with other issues, such as a close friends Mother has been diagnosed with cancer and it was touch and go for a while. There was a month where I felt I was at the hospital every day. So it's really been hard to juggle a lot of that and keep going on writing. Especially since fan fiction is a favorite hobby of mine and I've truly missed it. So what's next?**

 **Last Symphony should be seeing a new chapter in the not too distant future. The release of the Persona 3 and 5 dancing games has definitely got me pushing to finish that since we're in the middle of the Dancing All Night story. Not to mention nearly at the end of the whole Last Symphony storyline! Can't wait to get to end of that.  
**

 **My Chrono Trigger fic will be getting a new chapter after that. It's one of my favorite games so I do take extra time on it than normal, but still it has been too long without an update than I would like. Especially since the plot for it is starting to pick up.**

 **Beyond that I do have some various other things in the back. I know my Momento Reliquum, the sequel to my Persona 3 Momento Umbrae is still in the background and people have been asking me about it. And believe me I will get to it! I know it's been years now but hey... life never gives me the time I wish I had to focus on my writing. But that story is going to be the cap to my Persona stories and I do mean all of them. So no I haven't forgotten it! But when it will make it's appearance, I don't know right now.**

 **I'm sorry about the disappearance but hope you all understand! Also it is December and if you want a Christmas story fix you can always check out my Last Symphony AU story through my profile page.**

 **As for Bitter Fool, I'm unsure of how often it will be updated. I do have a number of chapters already written for it but they need editing. So it'll be sporadic here.**

 **Let me know what you think! I'm interested to know what you guys think of Tadashi. Also yes I do have set pairings... but I'll leave that a mystery for now. See you all in my next release.**


	2. Chapter 2 - Truth of Desire

**Chapter 2 / Truth of Desire**

 _Tuesday / April 12th, 2016 / Kamoshida's Castle - Exterior / After School  
_ _Ichihara Tadashi_

"Look! It's the castle from yesterday!" Ryuji and I were both surprised to be standing here once more. It was hard to just dismiss what had happened to us yesterday. Especially if you think about what we had seen. And that power I had awakened to had certainly felt more than real. Still, us getting here had nothing to do with us taking a specific path… but simply using a navigation app on my phone.

So that was what Igor from the Velvet Room had referred to as the Metaverse Navigator. That would make this place… the metaverse… or rather the phrase he had said before. A Palace.

We moved closer to the castle. The things in the architecture that reminded me that this was supposed to be our school made me shiver. And the word, metaverse, was a bit too spot on if this was truly a twisted view of reality.

"We made it back. That means what happened yesterday was for real too," Ryuji nodded to himself.

"I don't know if I would rather this be true or me legitimately just going fucking nuts. You do realize that no one would ever believe us, right?" I glanced at him.

"At least we know that we aren't crazy," Ryuji commented.

"Oh good. So if you want to go ahead and get killed because of a mostly naked egotistical psychotic abusive wannabe king, then at least we know we aren't insane," I can't help but say sarcastically.

"Yeah but you... yeargh! Those clothes," Ryuji was looking to me and I looked down at myself. And sure enough I was in that weird outfit again. Red gloves, a black trench coat, black pants and a dark gray button up shirt… and I knew without feeling for it that the mask was there on my face. Glasses that I wore were replaced by them. Yet I could see perfectly. If there was one thing I enjoyed it was being able to see without my glasses. "That happened last time too, huh!? What's with that outfit?"

"I would presume it has to do with that Persona crap from yesterday. But why don't you take a guess. You know about as much about this shit as I do," I shook my head. What was crazier in this situation? Was it me being able to summon another being to attack other equally terrifying creature… or the fact that an app on my phone had transported us to some other world that both resembled but also wasn't our school. Or maybe the Velvet Room and Igor's extremely long and unreasonably so nose. Honestly it was hard to choose. There was more than enough crazy to go around.

"Shit man… I don't get it either. None of this makes any effin' sense at all," Ryuji shook his head.

"Hey!" And of course… why not add more to it? Morgana appeared next to us. "Stop making a commotion. The Shadows started acting up so I came here wondering what it could be. To think you guys would come back to the entrance when you barely managed to escape."

Ryuji questioned the strange cat like creature named Morgana, "What is this place? ...Is it the school?"

Morgana gave a surprising straight forward answer, "That's right."

"But it's a castle!" Ryuji pointed at the building as if he needed to more clearly dictate the problem in logic.

Metaverse Navigator… no way it could be something as crazy as that right? How would any of that even be fucking possible? This just became more ridiculous with every passing moment.

"The castle IS the school. But only to this castle's ruler," Morgana was trying to clarify the point but it was just leading to more questions.

"The castle's ruler?" Ryuji shook his head.

"I think you called him Kamoshida? It's how his distorted heart views the school," Morgana was now putting up another reason. One that fit in line with the name of the app… the Metaverse Navigator. A metaverse would literally be a world seen through perception. Meaning if the teacher saw the school as the place he ruled over… as a King… then it would literally show up as a castle in the metaverse. That is some kind of bullshit. What should I be more pissed off about? This metaverse existing? Or, Kamoshida sees himself as a King and the school his castle?

"Kamoshida... Distorted...?" Ryuji couldn't wrap his head around it. "Explain it in a way that makes sense!"

"I shouldn't have expected a moron to get it..." Morgana sighed.

"What'd you say!?" Ryuji glared at Morgana. But his anger was interrupted by the sound of a loud scream coming from within the castle. "What was that?"

"It must be the slaves captive here," Morgana answered simply.

"For real?" Ryuji looked to the castle and another scream could be heard, in apparently a lot more pain. "Oh, shit... It's for real! We saw other guys held captive here yesterday... I'm pretty sure they're from our school."

"Most likely on Kamoshida's orders. It's nothing out of the ordinary; it's like that every day here," Morgana explained. "What's more, you two escaped yesterday. He must have lost his temper quite a bit."

"That son of a bitch!" Ryuji now was glaring back up at the castle.

"Ryuji...?" Morgana was concerned about Ryuji. Yeah… Ryuji's attitude had certainly changed from a moment ago. He was angry. I had no idea why though. Likely something about Kamoshida. It was obvious since I had first met Ryuji that he hated the teacher.

"This is bullshit!" Ryuji then smashed his shoulder up against the side of the castle. "You hear me, Kamoshida!?"

"Doing that isn't going to open it, you know..." Morgana looked at him for a moment. "Still, it seems you have your reasons."

"Hey, Monamona!" Ryuji moved to Morgana suddenly.

"It's Morgana," the strange cat creature corrected him.

"Do you know where those voices are comin' from...?" Ryuji asked him.

"Oh hell, Sakamoto… are you really going to suggest what I think you are?" I groan and put my hand to my forehead.

"You want me to take you to them?" Morgana guessed the real question Ryuji was asking. "...Well, I guess I could guide you there. But only if he comes with us."

"Me? Shit," I turned away. There was another scream. I knew why Ryuji wanted to go. And as much as I wanted to walk away and ignore all of this bullshit... I couldn't. I knew that I needed to find out the truth of this situation before I made a decision either way. Still, I looked to Morgana, "Why me?"

"I just want to get a better look at your powers," Morgana said earnestly. He had no reason to lie to me at this point. "Even if you don't agree, I bet this guy'll go on even if he has to do it alone. Are you gonna leave him?"

"Are you trying to fucking guilt trip me or something? I never said I wasn't going, I just wanted to know why you were making that stipulation. Whatever. let's just get this shit moving," I groaned and scratched the back of my head.

Yeah sure, go to Tokyo. Serve your parole, keep your head down, don't be noticed. Just get through it so that maybe you can live a normal life. But wait, that's fucked anyway because your permanent record is now shit. So who cares? Get involved in some supernatural bullshit. Potentially get in over your head and maybe find a way to fuck up your life even more! Nice job, Tadashi. You've managed to find a way to pile up even more shit and make life more fucked.

"It's settled then," Morgana nodded.

"For real? Thanks, Ichihara. I know this is pretty selfish of me," Ryuji looked to me.

"I told you before, right? I'm not the kind of person to leave someone behind to save myself. And if something messed up is going on here… then I think we should find out exactly what… and if there is anything we can do," I said and we both nodded in agreement before looking back to Morgana.

"All right, let's do this. Follow me," Morgana then led us back into the castle.

At the end of the day I couldn't stop myself. No matter how fucked up my own life could become… would I ever be okay with standing by and doing nothing? Could I turn my back on something as fantastical as this? Maybe. If no one was in danger, if no one was suffering, then yeah I could. But… what was this place? And what was the truth behind Kamoshida's view of this school? The true purpose of the Metaverse… That will determine what I decide.

* * *

 _Tuesday / April 12th, 2016 / Kamoshida's Castle / After School  
_ _Ichihara Tadashi_

"Dammit! This is bullshit!" Ryuji said as we were looking through bars into a large room. There was a volleyball court but the volleyball players were currently being beaten by the guards. The knights in full armor. They were yelling out in pain. Yeah, this was all kinds of bullshit. But the truth of this situation was complicated.

Morgana had referred to this place with the same terminology I heard from Igor last night. This place was known as a Palace. A location that belonged to the teacher Kamoshida Suguru. And was a castle because that was how he viewed the school. His personal castle that he ruled over and could do whatever he wanted. That was the general description that Morgana had given. Which I had more or less pieced together myself before now based on the limited amount I heard from Morgana and Igor before it.

So… it _was_ tied to the real Kamoshida but it wasn't like he was aware of the existence of the castle. It was fucking weird. But it seemed like Ryuji had personal reasons as to his feeling about the former Olympian Kamoshida. Definitely sat in the _why don't you just fucking die_ category in terms of how he felt for the PE teacher. I had no knowledge of why he felt that way but I doubt Ryuji was one to feel that way without reason. All the talk around school made it seem like Ryuji wasn't someone you would want to hang around with. But something felt incredibly off about it based on my own interactions with him. Considering people are garbage and make snap judgments on others… Ryuji could be more like me than I thought.

"How many times do I have to tell you to keep your voice down," Morgana said in an elevated whisper.

"But this is beyond messed up," Ryuji shook his head and was not checking the cage in front of us. "How do I open this...?"

However, two volleyball players approached us from the inside of the prison room. And gave quite different answers than a sane person would expect.

"Stop it!"

"Leave us alone... It's useless," Each of them had a tone that indicated they were resigned to their fate. Like there was no other choice. "If we stay obedient, we won't be executed like you guys!"

"You're tellin' me you wanna stay in a place like this!?" Ryuji couldn't believe it. Neither could I… but judging from the expression Morgana had, it wasn't that simple.

"Wait a minute... Were you planning on taking these guys out of here?" Morgana seemed like the idea was utterly ridiculous.

"We can't just leave 'em here," Ryuji quickly countered.

Morgana shook his head, "How stupid can you be...?"

"What!?" Ryuji glared.

"These are only humans in Kamoshida's cognition," Morgana said simply. "They aren't real humans that have entered from reality. They're different from you two."

I knew it had to be something like that. It still doesn't make it any less fucked up of a situation though. Was that it then? It was this way because he saw the volleyball players this way? People just to be tortured? Just how screwed up was it at school? It's bad enough that I had to be charged for assault against an asshole that openly abused a woman. But now there was a teacher that saw school as his personal fucking castle? And that he could just do what he wanted? Why the hell was that allowed to go on? Screw that crap.

"Cognition?" Ryuji didn't really understand.

"It means there's no point in saving them. They're different from the real ones in the real world. You could say that these are extremely similar-looking dolls," Morgana did his best to simplify it.

"The hell? Why's it gotta be so complicated?" Ryuji shook his head.

"Considering how absolutely insane all of this to begin with, it at least makes some kind of sense. I mean why the fuck would it be a castle to begin with? What bothers me is if it means that the real students in our school have to take abuse like this from Kamoshida," I try to move the conversation forward.

"Tch… The school is a castle, and the students are slaves... It's so on point that it makes me laugh. This really is the inside of that asshole's head," Ryuji's words gave me little doubt that it was the truth.

"This is horrible. I'm sorry to say but if that's how it is here, then likely he must treat them as slaves in the real world too," Morgana confirmed it, not that it made me feel better being right in this instance.

"In the real world too...?" A thought must have come to Ryuji. "Wait, I know these guys... They're members of the volleyball team-the one Kamoshida coaches for!"

"They must be physically abused every day... There's no way they'd be so beat up normally," Morgana was definitely glum about the subject. But if it was the truth... and this was something happening at our school… we couldn't just pretend we didn't know. There was a problem though. If it had been going on for a while… that meant for one reason or another… it was being allowed to happen. Fuck, I really did find a new shit hole to fall into.

"Don't tell me... They're going through similar shit in reality!?" Ryuji shook his head. Yeah, it wasn't an easy thought to just accept.

"Most likely. I mean, this proves that Kamoshida thinks of them as slaves," Morgana confirmed.

"So it might be for real..." Ryuji hung his head. "I had heard that Kamoshida's usin' physical punishment. They're just rumors, but... If they're true, wouldn't this be somethin' to report to the police?" Ryuji looked to me.

"Normally, I would say yes. But I doubt it's that simple," I sighed.

Ryuji pulled out his phone, "We can use these guys as evidence. If it all goes well, we can take down that asshole Kamoshida." He frowned as he looked down at his phone. "It's not workin'!? So we can use the navigation app, but the camera's a no go?"

"A navigation app?" Morgana was the one to be confused this time.

"That's what we used to come here," Ryuji somewhat explained before looking up at me. "What about yours?"

"I doubt I am going to have a different result," I reached into my pocket and retrieved my phone. I opened the screen and tapped the camera app, but like I imagined it wouldn't open. "No good. Honestly, you think we would have thought to try and take pictures of this place yesterday."

"Whatever you do is fine, but we're gonna get caught if we stand around like this. We need to head back," Morgana must have heard something for him to suddenly be concerned about this considering how long we had been standing here and talking about this.

"Hang on a sec," Ryuji turned back towards the large cell with the volleyball court. "There's no other way... I'll just memorize their faces before goin' home."

All things considered that is actually a pretty impressive skill to be able to do. My main concern was the fact that if this had been an ongoing thing for a while and nothing had been reported to the police. There was something worse going on here. That meant even if we knew who was being physically abused, it would mean nothing if nobody wanted the help. People that stood there and accepted abuse because of... why? Why would that bullshit ever be acceptable? I can't fathom there to ever be a good enough reason. Tch, fuck my probation. If I can take the asshole down, then I was going to help Ryuji every step of the way to make it happen.

* * *

 _Tuesday / April 12th, 2016 / Kamoshida's Castle / After School  
_ _Ichihara Tadashi_

Really? We can't even manage to escape this place without getting ourselves into more trouble? Of course...why should it be any different than the way my luck usually fucking goes. God dammit. Shouldn't expect anything less considering we have to cross the damn main hall to get to the exit. We might as well had left out of the big fucking doors. I mean...what was the point of sneaking in if you just openly walk through the main entrance hall to begin with? Fuck, fuck, fuck!

"You knaves again?" Kamoshida was there to cut us off. No… from what Morgana said, this was actually Kamoshida's Shadow. His subconscious and how he really feels about the world. All of this was his creation. "To think you'd make the same mistake again. You're hopeless."

"The school ain't your castle," Ryuji had no problems talking back to the Shadow. "I've memorized their faces real good. You're goin' down!"

"It seems it's true when they say 'barking dogs seldom bite.' How far the star runner of the track team has fallen," Kamoshida glowered at Ryuji.

Star of the track team? Ryuji? Oh shit… what the hell happened? I realized that Ryuji probably had a real good fucking reason that he hated Kamoshida. One I hadn't really considered.

"The hell are you gettin' at?" Ryuji narrowed his eyes on the Shadow of Kamoshida.

"I speak of the 'track traitor' who acted in violence, ending his teammates' dreams. Oh, I can only imagine the pain of the others who were dragged under with your... selfish act," Kamoshida sure seemed smug.

Ryuji didn't say anything but I think I had an idea.

"I'm guessing this is part of the history you have with this asshole. And why you hate him so much?" I say, trying to be objective and not allowing my guard to be lowered. Shadow Kamoshida had contingent of guards with him after all. He might be trying to just get an opening.

"What a surprise. So you're accompanying him without knowing anything at all? He betrayed his teammates and crushed their hopes, yet he still carries on as carefree as ever," Shadow Kamoshida made it sound like I would give a shit about it.

"That's not true!" Ryuji called out. Of course it wasn't, the bastard was clearly twisting it to get under his skin and case doubt. Like I was going to fucking fall for that.

"You've come along with this fool and are now going to end up dead. How unlucky of you," Shadow Kamoshida then turned his back. "Go. Kill them all. Don't sully my castle with garbage." He gave orders to his knights.

Two of the knights pushed forward and bursted apart into their true Shadow form.

"Goddammit," Ryuji hung his head.

Morgana and I stepped forward, "Ryuji, move!"

"I'll kill you! I'll kill you 'cause King Kamoshida told us! I'll kill 'cause that's what he wants!" The Shadow quickly declared.

This fight didn't look good. They looked much stronger than the Shadows we had faced before. Even though Morgana had been helping me get used to combat… we weren't ready for this. "Morgana, they are going to quickly surround us if we don't do something."

"I know, I know! Crap! Look out! There's more of them. This is bad..." Morgana said. There was no time to react and thankfully Ryuji had gotten a good distance from us from the fight but the Shadows quickly pinned both Morgana and I to the ground.

"Son of a fucking bitch," I grumbled as the strength of them was more than I had anticipated. "Not that I expected it to be a fair fight but God dammit this is fucking frustrating."

Shadow Kamoshida laughed and moved forward putting his foot on the back of Morgana. Morgana groaned, "You piece of-" His voice was cut when Shadow Kamoshida twisted his foot on Morgana's back.

"I bet you simply came here on a whim and ended up like this. Isn't that right?" Shadow Kamoshida was looking to Ryuji who was the last of us that had any freedom.

I looked to him. I could see it… the frustration in his eyes of how he had to stand by and watch as Morgana and I got taken down so easily. It wasn't his fault though. Ryuji didn't have a Persona… and fighting a Shadow without one… Ryuji shook his head, "No..."

"What a worthless piece of trash, getting emotional so quickly. How dare you raise your hand at me. Though it was only temporary, have you forgotten my kindness in supervising track practice?" Shadow Kamoshida was gloating now at Ryuji?

"Wasn't no practice-it was physical abuse. You just didn't like our team," Ryuji replied back fiercely.

"It was nothing but an eyesore. The only one who needs to achieve results is me," Shadow Kamoshida's laugh had a dark edge to it. "That coach who got fired was hopeless too. Had he not opposed me with a sound argument, I would've settled it with only breaking his star's leg."

I blinked… had I just heard that right? Kamoshida had not only gotten the coach fired but also broke the track teams star's leg? That star… it had to be Ryuji.

"What?" Ryuji glared back.

"Do you need me to deal with your other leg too? The school will call it self-defense anyway," Shadow Kamoshida confirmed it for me. Kamoshida had previously broken Ryuji's leg. And likely had done so under the guise of 'self-defense'. I could see it… he had likely goaded Ryuji into attacking him or something like it. Then he could injure him and call it self-defense. In one move he would ruin the track team as well as get motivation that ended up getting the old track team coach fired. This asshole was just as calculated as he was selfish.

"Dammit... Am I gonna lose again?" Ryuji looked to the floor. "Not only can I not run anymore... the track team is gone too 'cause of this asshole."

"So that's why," I heard Morgana realize it a moment after I had.

Shadow Kamoshida twisted his heel in Morgana's back, "Once these two are dealt with, you're next." He laughed.

"Ryuji!" Morgana called out.

"Don't you fucking give up Sakamoto! You faced him off before right? So get your Goddamn ass up and stand up to him now!" I yelled at him before the Shadow on me drove its heel into my own back.

"You're right. Everything that was important to me was taken by him... I'll never get 'em back," Ryuji admitted to himself.

"Stay there and watch," Kamoshida taunted. "Look on as these hopeless scum die for nothing because they sided with trash like you."

Ryuji got to his feet, "No, that's what you are. All you think about is using people. You're the real scumbag, Kamoshida." Ryuji boldly stepped forward.

Shadow Kamoshida turned to his guard, "What are you doing? Silence him!"

"Stop lookin' down on me with that stupid smile on your face!" Ryuji pointed at Shadow Kamoshida and yelled defiantly at him.

 _"_ _ **You made me wait quite a while,**_ _"_ a mysterious voice came from nowhere as Ryuji stumbled and he brought his hands up to his face.

Wait… was it happening… really happening? Just like with me.

 _"_ _ **You seek power, correct? Then let us form a pact. Since your name has been disgraced already, why not hoist the flag and wreak havoc? The 'other you' who exists within desires it thus. I am thou, thou art I... There is no turning back. The skull of rebellion is your flag henceforth!**_ _"_ As the mysterious voice finished… Ryuji's face was then half covered… with a mask. Similar to mine… but different. This was it… Ryuji, you son of a bitch. Kick his ass!

"Hmph, what can you do?" The Shadow on top of me seemed hardly amused. "Cower in fear and watch!" I couldn't see the Shadow on top of me… but I take it he was about to kill me. Hurry the fuck up, Ryuji!

Ryuji grabbed the sides of his mask and while screaming… he yanked it off his face. The swell of power pushed the Shadows back. Off of both me and Morgana. I looked up to see Ryuji, now clad in a different attire… mostly black… yellow gloves and a red scarf around his neck. Standing above him was definitely a pirate, and even stood on a mini-ship. That is weird but it was definitely Ryuji's power. I felt it was pretty damn fitting of him.

"Right on... Wassup, Persona... This effin' rocks," Ryuji grinned. "Now that I got this power, it's time for payback. Yo, I'm ready."

Morgana and I quickly got to our feet with the Shadows thrown off of us and moved to Ryuji's side.

"Don't make me laugh," the guard in gold armor suddenly turned into its true Shadow form. A knight in armor on a large horse.

"Blast him away! Captain Kidd!" Ryuji called out.

"What troublemakers that bother King Kamoshida with trifle matters," The Shadow scoffed.

"Kamoshida's cognition ain't changin', right? Then I'll act like the troublemaker I am! Let's do this, Captain Kidd," Ryuji said, ready to fight.

"Stay focused, Sakamoto," I call out to him.

"You got it. But it's about time I let loose. I've let you do the fighting enough up till now," Ryuji then unleashed a bolt of lightning towards the Shadow that hit it hard. I wasn't about to complain with a show like this.

The Shadow summoned more to his side to fight against us. More of the same from before. This time though Ryuji's lightning attacks were more than enough to overwhelm the Shadows. They must have been weak against it because the two he had summoned to help were easily smited down by Ryuji. And the last one could do nothing as Morgana and I quickly overwhelmed him with our combined attack. Having Ryuji here, had flipped the situation on its head into our favor.

"I am... a loyal subject... of the glorious King Kamoshida... So why... have I lost?" The Shadow muttered as he began to collapse.

"Are all Shadows this stupid?" I mutter.

"It just proves that Kamoshida ain't anything special," Ryuji says as the Shadow collapsed back and onto the ground.

Shadow Kamoshida stood there with wide eyes as he watched his Guard Captain be defeated by the three of us.

"Whoa... So Ryuji had the potential too..." Morgana was surprised.

"Even if you apologize now... I ain't forgivin' you," Ryuji makes a fist toward Kamoshida.

Despite the surprise a moment ago, Shadow Kamoshida just grinned, "I told you this is my castle. It seems you still don't understand." Then from nearby a girl with blonde hair pigtails in a two piece swimsuit with a cat ear accessory stepped out from nearby to go near Shadow Kamoshida. Wait, I knew that girl! She sits in front of me in my class!

"Wh-Takamaki?" Ryuji is alarmed. He knows her? I certainly hadn't been able to really talk with her, other than a mere word. Our teacher had introduced me saying that I hadn't been feeling well and so I showed up half way through the day… which was a lie that the girl had seen through. Still… what the hell was this about?

"Wha... What a meow-velous and beautiful girl..." Morgana spoke. Really didn't have time to deal with that. Even as good looking as this girl was, she was obviously just another cognition of this Shadow. And I didn't like that one fucking bit. Especially when the next moment she has her arms on Shadow Kamoshida and cozying up to him. Fuck this guy.

"What's going on?" Ryuji had a blank look on his face.

I had heard rumors about the girl in my class. Mostly because the girls sitting behind me wouldn't shut the fuck up. And they were not too flattering about her either. But I would assume that this girl was likely another victim of Kamoshida… albeit a different kind of victim. And those thoughts only made my blood boil that much more. "This is all kinds of fucking wrong," I swore.

"Yeah, now that you mention it... But why is she even here?" Ryuji muttered but as he said it Shadow Kamoshida turned and put his hand on Takamaki's cheek. "Hey! Let go of her, you perv!"

"How many times must I tell you until you understand? This is MY castle-a place in which I can do whatever I want. Everyone wishes to be loved by me. That is, everyone besides slow-witted thieves like you," he turned fully back to us.

"I am not a Goddamn thief!" I growl.

Ryuji instead focused on the girl, "Takamaki! Say somethin'."

"Calm down, Ryuji. It seems that girl isn't the real one, She's the same as those slaves-a being made of Kamoshida's cognition of her," Morgana was trying to calm Ryuji down from doing something stupid.

"Are you jealous?" Kamoshida asked point blank. "Well, I'm not surprised. Women aren't drawn to problematic punks like you." Shadow Kamoshida looked away for a moment and gave an order, "Clean them up this instant!"

Shadows suddenly appeared in front of us. This is no good if he can just summon them that quickly.

"We're outnumbered... Let's scram before we get surrounded," Morgana advised. Yes some fucking common sense for once. Even with Ryuji's new power we were at a disadvantage here.

"We're not gonna do anything and just run?" Ryuji didn't want to.

"I understand but do you think you're gonna accomplish anything if we get ourselves fucking killed here? The real Takamaki could be in some real trouble in the real world!" I pulled on Ryuji's arm.

"Fine," Ryuji looked at Shadow Kamoshida. "We'll expose what you really are, no matter what! You better be ready for us."

Shadow Kamoshida laughed, "I was beginning to get bored of torturing the ones here. Come at me whenever you want, if you don't care about your lives."

"Ignore him, let's go!" Morgana said as we quickly turned and made a mad dash toward our exit in the side room. The Shadow Kamoshida didn't follow us. All we could do was get out of here for now. But just what the fuck were we going to do from here on out?

Things just get more fucked up every day.

* * *

 _Wednesday / April 13th, 2016 / Shujin Academy - Courtyard / After School  
_ _Ichihara Tadashi_

What an absolute shit day this had been. Last night hadn't been exactly grand either. Ryuji and I had been determined to find some evidence against Kamoshida and the abuse he was likely inflicting on the volleyball team. And even though we had asked around while the volleyball rally was taking place, it hadn't gotten us much of anywhere. There had to be a loose thread somewhere. Someone had to be willing to stand up and testify against that asshole. But I had a feeling that this might be a practice in futility. Son of a bitch.

I put my phone back in my pocket and mindlessly kick a nearby vending machine. "Mother fucker." It wasn't like there wasn't evidence of it. The members of the volleyball team all had various injuries. Generally small, mostly bruises, but guess what is the main injury someone has when being physically abused? Yeah, fucking bruises.

"Hey, can I talk to you for a sec?" a voice called out. I turned to see a girl I recognized. It be hard for me not too considering she sat in front of me. Takamaki Ann was her name. I didn't know much about her but I did know that she was possibly a victim of Kamoshida. Maybe this could be a lucky break.

"What is it?" I keep it simple, but my anger from before likely affected my tone.

"It'll be quick," she assures me. "Anyway, what's with you? Like, how you were late the other day was a lie and all. There's that weird rumor about you too."

"I'm sure you understand how it goes. They like to keep their image all squeaky clean. And nobody cares to listen to the truth… they just stick to what makes it easy for them," I looked away from her. "Glad to see not everyone is so easily taken in by their bullshit."

"And the rumors about you?" Takamaki pressed.

"I wouldn't know. I don't make a habit of caring what a bunch of people I don't know say about me. No one knows the first thing about my situation anyway," I tell her bluntly. Strangely I think she liked that answer.

"Whaddya want with him?" Ryuji asked as he approached us. Takamaki looked at him.

"Right back at you. You're not even in our class," Takamaki made a valid point.

"We just happened to get to know each other," Ryuji answered.

"Do you remember a couple days ago? You got a ride to school with that teacher, Kamoshida I believe," I could at least try and direct this conversation to something beneficial. And I suspected that Takamaki was talking to me for a reason. "After you left with him I ran into Sakamoto. We unfortunately got into a bit of an incident and we ended up together for a while. It's also why I was late."

"Something happened?" she looked back to me. She seemed to be appreciative of my somewhat honest answer, although it was incredibly vague. However, she obviously had a purpose as she quickly switched gears and went right to the point. "Look anyway. What're you planning on doing to Kamoshida-sensei?"

"Huh?" Ryuji was surprised for a moment. "...I see. I getcha. You're all buddy-buddy with Kamoshida after all." Huh? Was that true? I mean she did get in a car with him. But considering what we saw in the castle it had to be a lot more complex than just that.

"This has nothing to do with you, Sakamoto," Takamaki got a bit defensive.

"If you found out what he's been doin' behind your back, you'd dump him right away," Ryuji boldly says.

She's actually alarmed, "Behind my back? What's that supposed to mean?" Actually… can we back up to the fact that Ryui is implying that Takamaki is dating Kamoshida… that is all kinds of wrong.

"You wouldn't get it," Ryuji settles with that for his response.

She shakes off that comment and looks between the two of us, "Anyway, people are already talking about you two. I don't know what you're trying to pull, but no one's gonna help you. I'm warning you, just in case. That's all." She stopped looked at me for a moment… then down to the ground before walking away and leaving the two of us alone.

"Why's she gotta be so aggressive all the time?" Ryuji watched her leave.

"She did come to warn us. And I think she meant it," I commented. She had no reason to go out of her way to talk to me. She didn't seem to be one that was easily taken in by lies and rumors. It felt like she was under a lot of stress though. "You know her? You were giving her a hard time."

"We just went to the same middle school is all," Ryuji waved it off. But it came off to me as if he just didn't want to talk about it. "Anyways, that's not what we're here to talk about. I had no luck on my end. What about you? Did anything like someone's name turn up?"

"Yeah, the last guy I talked to, mentioned someone named Mishima. Said he had been getting special coaching from Kamoshida himself," I gave him the quick version. The guy hadn't really meant to let the name out either. Hadn't I heard the name Mishima before? Still… after witnessing the fact that the whole volleyball team was keeping quiet… I was starting to wonder if this was a lost cause.

"True. I always see the guy covered in bruises. Let's go talk to him before he leaves then," Ryuji said before we headed off. We didn't have to go too far before we caught up to Mishima. I recognized him as one of the kids from my class, no wonder why I had heard it before. Now that I think about it… I did find it the amount of bandages he had on my first day I came to school a bit odd. No one can get that many bruises and scratches just from volleyball practice. "Hey, got a second?" Ryuji called out to him.

"Sakamoto?" Mishima seemed alarmed, looking to him and then me. "And you, too?"

"C'mon, we just wanna chat," Ryuji said. I hope he realizes he just comes off as a bully talking like that. At least try and sound more friendly, Ryuji. Aren't the two of us already labeled enough at this school? Ryuji didn't waste any time in getting to the heart of the matter. "Kamoshida's been 'coaching' you, huh? You sure it's not just physical abuse?"

Goddammit Ryuji. You are about as subtle as a sledgehammer and I appreciate that. No tip toeing around subjects with him it would seem.

Mishima took a couple steps away, "Certainly not!" His eyes were looking to the ground. He was lying just like the rest of his teammates. Unable to make eye contact. Unwilling to tell people the truth of what was clearly happening to them.

"What're you talkin' all polite for? Anyways, we saw him spike you today. Right in the face during the rally," Ryuji and I had been pretty close when we saw that. And I swear there was definitely a moment before Kamoshida spiked the ball, where he had definitely picked his target. Then again Mishima hadn't looked like he was going to even participate. Something about that felt off. Maybe Mishima had been told he was supposed to do nothing… and just take the hit in front of everyone. If that was true… then that display had been meant to be a public shaming for Mishima. A punishment.

"That was just because I'm not good at the sport," he turned his head further away.

"Liar," I called out directly. Mishima winced. "Don't give us that bullshit."

"It also doesn't explain all the other bruises you've got," Ryuji pressed.

"They're from practice," He said immediately.

I sighed, "This is pointless, Sakamoto. I didn't realize the volleyball team would be just a load of cowards. Can't even stand up for themselves." Mishima winced again… and I noted his hands turning to fists but he didn't correct me. Likely because he couldn't refute my claim.

"Is he forcin' you to keep quiet?" Ryuji still took a chance of pushing Mishima again.

"That's..." Mishima looked away. That wasn't a no. It would have to be enough as the asshole we are trying to get dirt on makes his appearance.

"What's going on here?" Kamoshida asked and approached us. "Mishima, isn't it time for practice?"

"I'm not feeling well today," Mishima spoke and kept his eyes to the ground.

Ah, shit. We must have inadvertently stopped Mishima from being able to skip out on practice. I silently apologize to him. I certainly hadn't meant to do this.

"What? Maybe you're better off quitting then," Kamoshida said it so matter of factly. "You're never going to improve that crappy form unless you show up to practice."

"Didn't you hear? He ain't feelin' well," Ryuji turned to Kamoshida.

Kamoshida ignored him though, "Well, Mishima? Are you coming to practice or not?"

This mother fucker was pulling a veiled threat on his player right in front of us? Even out here in the open in front of other students? Just how fucking arrogant could this asshole be? Dammit! Now I'm pissed even more.

"...I'll go," Mishima says, his tone of utter defeat.

"As for you, any more trouble and you'll be gone from this school for sure," Kamoshida looked to Ryuji.

"Bastard," Ryuji says under his breath.

"Same goes for you," Kamoshida looks to me. "Didn't the principal tell you to keep in line?"

"What are you going to do? Kick me out of school for talking to a classmate? Whatever, I'm out of here," I turned to leave.

"Hmph, just don't get in the way of my practice. All these unsettling rumors are making the students anxious, after all," Kamoshida was once again flaunting the fact that the rumors were going on because of him. This was just a display of his power, that he controlled us. Well, he could think all the fuck he wants.

"Let's go, Mishima," Kamoshida directed Mishima to follow him. "Shujin Academy is a place where those with aspirations come to learn. Unworthy students like yourselves don't have any right to be here." He glared at Mishima. "Get with the program!"

"Yes, sir," Mishima defeated just kept his head lowered. Kamoshida, thankfully, walked away and towards the gym.

"I think breaking his face in would make breaking probation worth it," I grumble under my breath. At least then I would actually have assaulted someone.

"That asshole," Ryuji added. "He's going to pay for this."

"There's no point," Mishima surprisingly spoke up. Ryuji and I both quickly looked to him. "Proving that he's physically abusing us is meaningless. Everybody knows. The principal, our parents. They all know, and they all keep quiet about it."

"This has got to be a joke," Ryuji shook his head, not wanting to believe it.

"Don't be a pain. You don't understand what I'm going through," Mishima said after a moment. "Shouldn't you of all people know that nothing's going to help?" It was directed at Ryuji, and about what happened to the track team. Yeah, if anyone was going to really understand what Kamoshida was capable of, it was Ryuji. Even more now that we had seen his palace… the place that showed his distorted desire. Mishima then ran off towards the gym.

"Well… what a fucking day this has been," I shake my head.

"Dammit," Ryuji stuffed his hands in his pockets.

"What should we do now? We don't have many options. We got confirmation from Mishima… but it looks like it isn't going to get us anywhere," I felt so incredibly frustrated that people would just be okay with this. To just go along with being abused. This was so fucking stupid. Is everyone at this school just idiotic or a coward? Does anybody not have the ability to stand up to shit that is so obviously fucking wrong?

"I'll try one more time to persuade the other guys. That's... all I can do," Ryuji took a deep breath and walked off.

Goddammit. Fuck Shujin Academy. Fuck the principal, and massively fuck that Kamoshida. There has to be something… anything we can do about his distorted desires and shove it up his Goddamn asshole.

* * *

 _Wednesday / April 13th, 2016 / Natsu Diner - Shibuya Location / Late Afternoon  
_ _Natsukawa Naozumi_

"Onii-chan, what are you doing here?"

I'm greeted by the questioning stare of my younger sister Natsukawa Shiori. Her dark brown hair, which was the same as my own, was done up in a braid and hung on her shoulder in front of her. She was wearing the dark green uniform that went with the Natsu Diner. She didn't look annoyed at seeing me, only that she wasn't sure why I was here.

"I was close by after leaving class," I said as I moved up to the bar of the diner and sat down as my sister moved behind it. I looked around and saw that we weren't busy at all. I expected this but it was still depressing to see. I put my bag on the counter and sighed. "No improvements, huh?"

"I think you need to contact that marketing company again, because I don't think our advertisements are actually making it out there. I don't know, Onii-chan. Even a lot of our regulars aren't showing up anymore," Shiori said as she placed a glass in front of me and then put a couple cubes of ice into it. Then she was pulling a bottle out and popped open the cap and then pouring it into the glass.

"I can't stand talking with them," I sighed thinking about the last time I called that marketing company. Something hadn't sat right with me then.

"Well, you are Natsukawa Naozumi, heir to Natsu Diner. The sole propater of-"

"-It's proprietor," I corrected.

"Yeah, sole proprietor of the family business. And the one Dad left in charge of it after he passed on. Even over Jiichiro-chan," Shiori smiled as if truly proud of this as she slid the full glass of soda to me and placed a straw into it.

"Nii-san would hate it if you called him that. And that only happened because Jiichiro wanted nothing to do with the family business and took off when he graduated high school. And orange cream soda?" I raised an eyebrow but didn't turn it down. "Any particular reason why?"

"What? I can't serve my onii-chan his favorite soda?" she gave that not so innocent smile. I knew she was just about to ask for something that I was probably inclined to turn down.

"Without an alternative motive? Unlikely. What do you want, Shiori?" I asked her as I took a drink from the orange cream soda she had just served me.

"You don't happen to have your notes from math from your senior year do you…" Shiori wasn't used to asking for something like this. It explained her going out of her way like this at least.

I scratched my head, she rarely asked me for anything, and my notes didn't have literal test question answers but could help her study. "Yes, I do. Just remind me when we get home and I'll dig them out of my closet for you."

She smiled big, "Thanks, Onii-chan. Oh, I better go see how my tables are doing. Be back in a bit." I watched as my sister ran off towards the few customers that were in the diner.

The lack of customers was a problem. This place was one of four restaurants that my family currently owned. We used to have a long chain of places when my Father was still alive. However, sometime after his death we had been bought out by Okumura Foods. Well, it wasn't as simple as being bought out.

We resisted the deal, of course, but Natsu Diner had been a public traded company. What had happened was a hostile takeover. Almost overnight the available shares of Natsu Diner had been bought, making them the majority owner. I couldn't fathom how they had managed to do so in such short order, but they had. In the aftermath, we came to a deal. The only deal we were offered from Okumura Foods.

Natsu Diner became a sole proprietorship and would only retain four of its thirty locations. All other locations would become part of Okumura Foods and be rebranded as its newest line of restaurants… Big Bang Burger. That was what happened to the 26 locations that had been started by my Father. Now they were franchised and repurposed for the corporate juggernaut that is Okumura Foods.

I took another drink from the orange cream soda as I looked down to the TV at the end of the bar. Looks like the news had something on about those increased incidents. There was a horrible subway incident the other day. It's a good thing that _she_ doesn't take the subway.

Natsu Diner had been the pride and joy of my family line. It started generations ago by my Great Great Grandfather but it only had a couple locations until my Father took over and started looking for ways to expand. His goal was to show the world how great our families diner was. His confidence swelled as he charged into business to find ways to expand and increase exposure. It led him to opening lot of locations, and then the biggest change of all… becoming a public traded company. That meant that the business was no longer owned by the family, but it was really the best way for the company to grow. And it did. After all, we had thirty locations and each one was self sufficient. So… how did things end up this way? Honestly, I've thought about it so much it makes me sick. And mostly because I am pretty sure I know exactly why things happened as they did.

As if seeing into my thoughts, a commercial for Big Bang Burger comes up on the TV. A company owned by Okumura Foods, a conglomerate giant in the food industry. It's primary shareholder was Okumura Kunikazu. Not to mention the father of my childhood friend, my best friend, Okumura Haru. Not exactly the easiest friendship to maintain when you believe that her father was the one responsible for a lot of the strife you've experienced in your life. But she isn't stupid, so I know she was definitely aware of my suspicions.

What a depressing topic. How we got to this point isn't important for the moment. The immediate problem was that most of the stores were in the red this month. There was only so much I could do while I was in college though. So… what could I do?

As I thought this a buzzing came from my jacket pocket. I pulled out my phone and saw a message from the person I had just been thinking about, Okumura Haru.

 _Haru: NAAOOOOO-CHAN!_

 _Naozumi: You do realize that typing in all caps or even texting my name is pointless right?_

 _Haru: Boo… . You're no fun._

 _Naozumi: Did you finally leave school?_

 _Haru: Just checking the flowers before I leave. Are we still planning to meet up in a couple days?_

 _Naozumi: Whenever you're available._

 _Haru: I'm hungry now. I demand ice cream._

 _Naozumi: Vanilla, double fudge. Yes, I know. Maybe after you get an actual meal._

 _Haru: :-P_

 _Haru: Nao-chan, let's go out today. Where are you?_

 _Naozumi: The diner in Shibuya._

 _Haru: Ooo… Wait for me! I'm on my way! :-D_

 _Naozumi: Be careful, things have been dangerous you know._

 _Haru: It's fine, I'll have my driver take me. -)_

I sighed as I shook my head and placed my phone on the counter. There was no arguing with that girl. Having Haru around could give me an idea on how to increase customers. It wouldn't be easy. Then again, when had anything ever gone my way?

Shiori came back over not too long after, "No plans for today?"

"Actually, Haru says she is on the way," I informed her as I took another drink from my soda. "Says she wants ice cream."

"Yeah? So you taking her somewhere?" Shiori raised an eyebrow.

"Maybe," I knew where she was going with this. I didn't care to entertain any of those sorts of thoughts right now. "After she gets a decent meal. Could you put in her usual order? And add some celery or cucumbers to it. Haru has a bad tendency to not drink enough water."f

"You're such a worrywart," Shiori giggled as she wrote down the order on her notepad.

"I wouldn't have to if she took better care of herself," I say this but I didn't believe it. She just didn't have a father that cared much about her. Not even checking the nanny or whoever he hired to watch over her looked after her properly. I first met Haru because she had a nanny that didn't really pay attention to her.

Shiori went to the kitchen to put in the order.

I pulled out a notebook from my bag and placed it on the counter. I flipped it open and looked over some numbers I had been running for a while now. No matter what I did, I couldn't figure it out. Natsu Diner was going to go under unless I could somehow flip it around. Well, it wasn't so dire that it would close any time soon. If numbers stayed as they were they could still manage to stay afloat for about eight months. That was more because of the money we had got from the deal with Okumura Foods.

I could arbitrarily increase the longevity by closing all but one location, but that was only a temporary problem. Not to mention losing part of the customer base in the process. That wasn't an acceptable outcome, not for a business that had been in my family for longer than I have been alive. Longer than my parents.

"Nao-chan!" I turned to see my childhood friend, rushing towards me. Wearing her Shujin Academy uniform but over it she had on a pink turtleneck cardigan with short puffed sleeves with the normal white long sleeve Shujin Academy shirt underneath it. Her hair, light auburn in color, was incredibly curled. Her hair had always been naturally curvy so it made sense she would embrace it. She was smiling big as she threw her arms up around me and if I hadn't turned and prepared for it I would have been knocked out of my chair. I hugged her back briefly but then pushed er off and towards the chair next to me. "Did you miss me?"

"What kind of question is that?" I sighed as I pulled my bag off from the table and placed it on the floor next to me. "You already know the answer."

"So you did miss me," Haru settled in the seat next to me. Her smile she had faded though as she looked at me. "What's wrong, Nao-chan? You're usually more playful than this." She leans over and looks at my notebook as I'm running over the numbers again. "Is this-"

I close the notebook and sigh, "Yeah it is. Things aren't looking good but, there is still time on that front. Nothing you need to worry about. How is school?"

She eyed me for a moment and went to speak but stopped herself. Shaking her head she answered my question instead, "It isn't bad, I suppose. For me, anyway."

"Well, that's good isn't it?" I raised an eyebrow.

"I've heard rumors. The volleyball team has a lot of injuries… but its… too many. It isn't normal to have a black eye from volleyball. I mean, not unless you're really unfortunate," Haru's tone was really concerned about the events that had no doubt occurred.

"But it is clear there is a problem," I pulled her back.

She nodded, "Yeah. As an upperclassmen I feel like I should be able to do something. But the volleyball coach, Kamoshida… he seriously creeps me out. So I've stayed away from him and tried not to call attention to myself in PE."

Kamoshida? The gold medalist? That's right, he had become a teacher when I had gone to Shujin a few years ago. His coaching has definitely made results on the volleyball team, but it wasn't until they hit the nationals after I had graduated that had really drawn the most attention. I didn't think anything of it at the time. I was too busy dealing with the death of my father and everything else.

"Haru-nee!" Shiori came out and placed a italian style dish of spaghetti and salad and placed it down in front of Haru, but then placed an identical dish in front of me.

"Shiori-chan!" Haru jumped up as the two both navigated around the bar and hugged each other. "I still can't get over how cute you look in your uniform." The Natsu Diner uniform was dark green, and my sister wore the version with a skirt and button up long sleeve shirt. I wasn't about to comment on my sisters cuteness but she did look good in it.

"You've been saying that forever," Shiori giggled. "I need to go check my tables but I'll be back."

"Alright," Haru and my sister separated and she moved back to the seat next to me. "I see you already ordered for me. Thank you."

"Want to wait for Shiori before we grab ice cream?" I asked her.

"That be great. Maybe you could take me home after?" Haru asked looking towards me. I met her gaze and for a moment I couldn't look away. Haru broke first, the hint of a blush on her cheeks.

"Of course, you sure that's okay?" I picked up my fork and turned to my meal.

"Why wouldn't it be?" she countered and turned to her own food, going for her salad first. I could see her smiling a bit from the edge of my vision. "Hey, Nao-chan."

"What is it?" I wasn't sure what she was getting at. The whole situation at her school was clearly bothering her. "Is there anything I can do for this whole Kamoshida thing?"

She shook her head, "I'm fine but I just thought that maybe we could spend more time together. Dad doesn't really notice me lately and I'll be graduating soon so I'll have more time."

I couldn't respond to that. I would never say no to spending more time with her, but Haru had always been more assertive, she never really gave me a choice. So her asking me like this was completely out of character from our usual interactions.

"Sorry, I'm being weird, aren't I?" Haru took a bite of her salad.

"Do you think I would ever say no to that?" I shrugged and turned to my own food. There was so much that both of us were clearly leaving unsaid. But I couldn't do anything for her right now. No matter how much I desired to say so much more to her.

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **Tadashi is being continually pushed to be involved and is not happy about being called a thief by Shadow Kamoshida. But hey Ryuji awakened to his Persona so that's a thing. But I think the hopelessness of the situation is really what frustrates Tadashi more. I think his hard stance is maybe just my own resistance to the way things unfold in Persona 5. While I really enjoy Persona 5 and the motivations and wanting to act, it also still feels in a lot of ways that it is forced as they have no choice. Maybe it would have been an unpopular opinion but having an option to completely ignore it would have been a cool conclusion. It would be considered a bad ending and an early game over basically. But would have been cool to see an ending where you can choose for the protagonist to not help, and you get a synopsis of your life in school as all these horrible things happen and you do nothing, trying to just get past your parole, but in the end you become like everyone else. Just another cog in the machine of life. A means to refuse to rebel, basically.**

 **That might be way I have Tadashi so resistant to fighting. At the same time, he is a good person and wants to help people. He certainly doesn't want to just leave things alone and let someone like Kamoshida get away with his bullshit. As a result he keeps moving forward and fighting even though he doesn't want to in a weird way. This is definitely going to be a problem later on.**

 **And then we have a new character Naozumi, who is deeply connected with Haru and her story. I changed a lot with the way Haru's story unfolds, and I hope people enjoy it. Will she join the phantom thieves earlier? No, she won't. But she'll definitely be around and involved as well as Naozumi. So I guess only time will tell what you guys think of him and Haru.**

 **Also in terms of release schedule, I'm hoping to release a new chapter about every six months. I know this likely seems like too long, but this is also to help push me get my Persona 4 Last Symphony out and finished. There is a particular reason for this, but that will have to wait for another time.**

 **Let me know what you think and see you next chapter.**


	3. Chapter 3 - Failure and Consequence

**Chapter 3 / Failure and Consequence**

 _Thursday / April 14th, 2016 / Shujin Academy / After School  
_ _Ichihara Tadashi_

Another day was finally over. Ryuji had messaged me through most of the day about possibly getting Takamaki to give us some information that might be able to help us. Still… what exactly were we going to do anyway? It looked like all our options were useless. Adults were just fucking useless. The parents knew about it, but likely they were blinded by the success of their children. Even if they were being abused, they were getting tangible results... something that may not have happened before. To an adult, maybe the suffering now only seemed to be temporary if their child could benefit in the long run. Fuck every parent that thinks that way. Do they really not remember how hard it was for them as teenagers? I guess they likely blocked out those memories.

Well whatever, fuck them. I came to the courtyard entrance and stopped when I realized someone was blocking my path. Oh right, I had seen her before. What was her name? I swear I heard it before… Suzui Shiho. Yeah that's what it was. She was… in bad shape. She didn't have the school blazer on, just the white long sleeve top with high collar. The insignia on the neck indicated she was a second year. Her right leg had long black leg brace on it. More than that she had a very noticeable bruise over her left eye that was slightly swollen. She was on the girls' volleyball team. I think I remember her and Takamaki talking just the other day. Just imagining that brute of a man Kamoshida touching this girl was enough to make me want to snap.

After a long moment she noticed me and looked up at her phone to me, "What is it?" She blinked and then realized she had been blocking the path. "Oh, I'm in the way, aren't I? Sorry."

"Please, don't worry about it. I know what it's like. I tend to get lost in thought myself at times," I smiled and tried to ease her slight panic. She seemed to relax quickly enough.

"I really am sorry though. I must have spaced out," she insisted and then took a closer look at me. She tilted her head a bit as she thought. "You don't look familiar. Could you be that transfer student from Class D?"

I'm not surprised, rumors had been spread in the school about me before I had even shown up. "The one and only. Well, it seems like I'm the only transfer student anyway."

"You are," a hint of a smile played on her lips before it fell again. "Um, this might not be any of my business, but don't let the rumors get to you, OK?"

I'm surprised. Even with the situation that this girl was in she was concerned over someone else. That just made whatever shit that Kamoshida was doing that much more despicable. Fuck, we really need to figure something out for this situation. "Don't worry about it. I've heard worse from my parents, so these rumors don't really bother me. What about you? You believe the rumors?"

She shook her head, "No, I don't believe anything I don't see for myself. I'm glad to hear you aren't being affected by all that crap. My best friend is often misunderstood too, all because of her looks."

"Takamaki, right?" I ask.

"Yeah, she's in your class, right?" Shiho seemed to brighten up a bit when talking about her best friend.

"She sits in front of me actually," I smile.

"Well I hope you can get along with her. She's a great friend to have. Sorry, I didn't mean to drag on like that," Shiho looked at her phone. "That time already? I have to head to practice. I'll see you around." She went to move past me, but I reflexively took her arm and she looked back at me confused.

"I'm Ichihara Tadashi, by the way," I let go of her hand and she widened her eyes.

"Oh right! I'm just not collected at all today. I'm Suzui Shiho," she gave a quick bow. "I'll talk to you again." She then turned and walked off. I couldn't help but notice her grabbing the spot I had grabbed as she left.

I had barely put any strength into that grip. Kamoshida, you fucking filth. If I find out, you so much as put a hand on that girl I will make you pay for it tenfold.

I finally stepped out into the courtyard and made my way to where I was meeting Ryuji. The moment I approached Ryuji seemed to be pissed.

"Dammit. What the hell," Ryuji then kicked the vending machine.

"So, does this mean you have good news or bad news? Or nothing?" I ask him somewhat dryly, though my mind was still somewhat on Shiho from before.

"All of 'em kept sayin' the same shit Mishima was talkin' about. Kamoshida had to have told 'em something. At this rate... it looks like we'll have to go to him directly," Ryuji shook his head. He already knew how pointless that was going to be.

"How about we just write up a full confession and just have him sign it while we are at it?" I rolled my eyes.

"I know it's effin' stupid," Ryuji sighed. "But seriously, isn't there something we can do? No way I'm gonna give in like this. Can you think of anything?"

"Nothing substantial. Unless you think telling the cops about a castle in a place called the Metaverse would work… which sounds ridiculous and we've actually been there a couple times now," I shook my head. We had to be able to figure something out though. If we didn't… who knows what would continue to happen. I could see Shiho in the back of my mind. The thought that she might be sexually abused made my blood boil. "We could just go to that castle and beat the shit out of that Shadow Kamoshida. It might not get us anywhere, but I'd feel a whole lot fucking better."

"You mean that other world's Kamoshida? I didn't think of that but is there any meaning to doing something like that?" Ryuji scratched his head.

"I finally found you," a new voice entered and I looked around but..I didn't see anyone just some sort of… cat?

"You say something?" Ryuji looked to me and I shook my head.

"Don't think you can get away with not paying me back for helping you," the voice was clearly coming from the cat and it decided to jump on top of a table and turned to look at us. I sighed. Really?

"That voice... Is that you, Morgana?" Ryuji's eyes widened. I was beginning to realize that Ryuji had no filter from his brain to his mouth. He just literally says what he is thinking. There was something refreshing about having a friend like that.

Friend? Well with what we had seen together, yeah, we were friends. And that honesty and bluntness of hims made him way better than any 'friend' I ever had before. Now, Morgana on the other hand was a whole different kind of can of worms. Or cat. Who the fuck knows?

"How dare you, up and leaving me the other day," Morgana glared at us. But yeah… he was definitely a cat.

"The cat's talkin'!?" Ryuji was having a hard time processing this.

"I am NOT a cat! This is just what happened when I came to this world," Morgana was very defensive about it. "It was a lot of trouble finding you two."

I sighed more heavily this time. Do we really have time for shit like this?

"Wait... You came to our world? Does that mean you have a phone?" Ryuji was trying to get an answer for at least that part of this situation.

"You don't need one when you're at my level. I did get pretty lost making my escape though," Morgana sounded like he had a bit of complications making it this far. Impressive either way.

"That aside, why can you talk!? You're a cat!" Ryuji was flustered.

"How should I know!?" Morgana didn't know either.

"Will you two, calm the fuck down? Yelling at each other isn't going to get us anywhere," I shook my head. "I have no doubts this is really Morgana so let's leave the how's and why's and move on okay?"

"You guys are having a rough time of this, hm? I heard you mention something about witnesses," Morgana was the first to move back to our previous conversation. "You know, I could tell you a thing or two about what to do about Kamoshida. Actually, Tadashi was pretty close to it just a moment ago."

"What I said before?" I thought back for a moment. What had I said? Was it about going after the Shadow in the Metaverse? That was more of a joke though.

"We really have to be looking for a cat in a busy time like this?" a voice of an older individual...I think it was a teacher.

"I just heard a meow somewhere near here. Didn't you hear it?" another voice, but younger said.

"Make sure you check every nook and cranny around," the older individual sighed.

"Meow?" Ryuji noticed it too. "Does that mean only us two can understand what you're sayin'?"

"I would wager anyone that has a Persona," I added.

"Looks like it," Morgana nodded.

"What the hell's goin' on?" Ryuji shook his head.

"Honestly, does any of this shit surprise you anymore? Get it together Sakamoto," I comment.

"Yeah, you're right," Ryuji looked back to Morgana. "Anyways, what you were talkin' about earlier. Is it for real?"

"You're quite the skeptic for being an idiot," Morgana looked at him.

"Hey, tell us more. Then again, this probably ain't the best place," Ryuji said as we watched a group of students moving close by. "Hey, got room in your bag for him? It wouldn't be good for Morgana to get caught here."

"I presume you have no room in your bag then?" I eyed him for a moment. I pulled my bag off and placed it onto the table. "Come on, Morgana. You'll have to put up with it for the moment."

"Tch, alright. It isn't a horrible idea," Morgana grumbled.

"Let's head up to the rooftop" Ryuji said and took off.

With Morgana safely hidden in my school bag I took a look around and then made my way back to the school building and then up the stairs until reaching the door to the roof. The sign did have a forbidden entry on it but we ignored it and stepped outside. Along with all the air conditioner units there was also a bunch of desks for some reason. But there was also a line of planters too. What the hell was that all about? Well I let Morgana back out and let him stretch on the ground as I moved over and casually sat on one of the desks.

"You said you know how we can do something about Kamoshida, right?" Ryuji started right to the core of the matter.

"It has to do with what Tadashi mentioned earlier. You'll need to attack his castle," Morgana answered.

"Hell, I just wanted to do it because I could do that, and he wouldn't remember it. But what exactly does attack his castle gain us?" I ask.

"That castle is how Kamoshida views this school," Morgana continued. "He doesn't realize what happens in there, but it's deeply connected to the depths of his heart. Thus, if the castle disappears it would naturally impact the real Kamoshida."

"What'd happen?" Ryuji crossed his arms.

"A Palace is a manifestation of a person's distorted desires. So, if that castle were no more... Any guess, Tadashi?" Morgana looked to me.

Well...I had been thinking about it, "Well, goodbye desires I would imagine."

"Precisely. You sure pick up things fast," Morgana seemed impressed.

"For real? H-He's gonna turn good?" Ryuji blinked.

"I doubt it is something that simple. Alright, Morgana, what's the catch to this scenario?" I looked at the cat. You know… if I hadn't seen the castle or Persona before this… I definitely would have believed I had gone insane. And yet here I am on a rooftop talking to a damn cat that was suggesting something to do with a person's distorted desires.

"Erasing the Palace essentially means forcing the owner to have a change of heart. However, even though their warped wants disappear, the crimes they committed remain. Kamoshida will become unable to bear the weight of those crimes, and he'll confess them himself," Morgana gave a further explanation. That still sounded way too easy.

"You for real? That's possible?" Ryuji was excited that the possibility was there.

"And since the Palace will no longer exist, he'll forget what we did there as well. Not only will we be able to bring down Kamoshida down, but there won't even be a trace of our involvement," Morgana continued to give only the good side to this whole thing. I felt a twitch of annoyance.

"So? How do we get rid of the Palace?" Ryuji jumped in.

"By stealing the Treasure held within," Morgana presented.

"Stealing?" Ryuji raised an eyebrow.

"Wait, hold the fuck up. We have to steal something?" I shook my head. I was starting to get pissed off about this whole thing.

"I'll tell you more once you agree to go ahead with this. It's my most valuable, secret plan, after all. If you want to help me out, I'll gladly teach you. What's your call?" Morgana asked the pair of us.

Ryuji looked to me, "Our luck's runnin' dry lookin' for witnesses. Goin' along with this might be our only choice."

I glared at Morgana, "How about you get to the part where you tell us the catch to this situation. I'm not agreeing to anything otherwise."

Morgana looked at me and after a moment finally spoke, "If we erase a Palace, there is no doubt that the person's distorted desires will be erased as well. But desires are what we all need in order to survive. The will to sleep, eat, fall in love-those sorts of things."

"I fucking knew it," I shook my head.

"I don't get it. What're you gettin' at?" Ryuji was a bit concerned probably because of my own reaction.

"If all of those yearnings were to vanish, they'd be no different than someone who has shut down entirely. They may even die if they're not given proper care. So..." Morgana said but Ryuji was quick to cut in.

"They might die!?" Ryuji was at least understanding what I had been worried about now.

"Will you listen to everything I have to say first?" Morgana sighed.

"Would their death be our fault?" Ryuji looked to me.

"Of course, it would be our fault. It would be because of our actions," I said looking to Morgana.

"Aren't you determined enough to face those kinds of risks?" Morgana asked.

Ryuji looked to me, "What do you think?"

"Given all the shit that Kamoshida has done. I don't fucking know. Killing someone? We'd just be vigilantes and there would be no point if he isn't around to actually take the punishment for the crimes he's committed. I'm neither a thief or a Goddamn killer," I said looking back to Morgana.

"I come all this way, and this is what I get. It's not like anyone will ever find out," Morgana said.

"That's not the point. If we just go around secretly doin' whatever we want, we'd be no better than that effin' Kamoshida," Ryuji backed me up on this.

"Isn't this your only option?" Morgana then turned around. "I'll come back later. Make sure you've made your decision by then." Then Morgana ran off.

"Man, we're gettin' all worked up for nothing... Dammit!" Ryuji and I both shook our heads.

"Like we would be okay killing someone," I couldn't even fathom when that would ever be an acceptable option. "Fuck!"

"I'll try and see if I can figure out another way," Ryuji said after a moment.

Ryuji left the roof and I looked up into the sky. What the fuck was Morgana thinking? He talked about as if the death of someone wouldn't matter because we couldn't be caught. And what was it about this stealing distorted desires? Was this what all of it was about? Was that why Igor had insisted on calling me a thief? Was this actually what I needed to do?

I moved to the side of the roof. Life wasn't fair at all. Suzui Shiho...was she at practice right now? If Kamoshida was hurting her...or any other girls could I really just not do anything? If the adults in the world were allowing this to happen...and the members of the volleyball team were too scared to stand up for themselves... would I really just stand by and do nothing? If I have the power to save them...even if it meant ending someone's life... could I do it? Could I take a life...to save a life? Ugh! Fuck you, Morgana!

* * *

 _Thursday / April 14th, 2016 / Station Square / After School  
_ _Ichihara Tadashi_

I made my way up the stairs and turned the corner and stopped for a moment. This is just stupid. Am I really in this position? The Metaverse showed an individual's distorted desires in a very tangible form. You could see how they really thought of the people around them. How they treated them. As we found out, it was no different in reality. The players were all abused...male and female alike. And the parents knew about it and said fucking nothing. What would it take? They were all fine with it because of the results. My blood was already boiling over when I heard someone nearby.

"Will you please give it a rest? I told you, I'm not feeling up to it," the voice was familiar. Who was it coming from? "Wait, what...!? That's not what you promised! And you call yourself a teacher!?"

I was able to use her voice being raised to see her. It was Takamaki. She was close by.

"This has nothing to do with Shiho!" Takamaki yelled into her phone. But then she pulled her phone away from her ear and looked at it.

Dammit, was that fucker Kamoshida threatening her and Suzui?

Takamaki then paid no attention to her surroundings and squatted down to the ground, hugging her legs. I wasn't going to ignore this, so I moved closer. I could hear her. "Shiho's starting position..."

I was standing next to her. She looked up at me before her eyes widened and got back to her feet. "Takamaki..."

She shook her head, "Wait... Were you listening?" She took a step away from me.

"That wasn't my intention," I try to be calm, but I could tell she was about to make a mad dash away from me.

"Haven't you heard of privacy?" Takamaki takes another step back. Then seeing my face she stops. "No, I was out of line. Sorry." Takamaki is close to losing her composure, she quickly wipes away a tear that has escaped from her cheek and tries to calm herself by talking to me. "So how much did you hear?"

"Who is it that is threatening you and Suzui?" I was about as direct as I could be.

She glances away, "I don't know what you are saying. It's nothing at all. Nothing..."

However, more tears escape her eyes, I can tell I might have pushed her too far. Takamaki instead turns and makes a mad dash away from me.

Fucking moron. Great job, Tadashi. Don't lose her now! I took off after her. I manage to see her slip down the stairs towards the Underground Walkway of Shibuya Station. Her red tights just made it easy to spot her. Though her twin tails were rather distinct as well. I manage to keep her in sight even through the crowd. I'm not even sure she has checked to see if I'm following her. I get down another level before I realize she's stopped. She's leaning against a pillar and not moving.

I walk up next to her, and casually lean up on the pillar. "Why are you running?" I ask in a neutral tone.

"Stop following me. Just leave me alone," Takamaki doesn't even look at me.

"I can't do that," I say after a moment.

"Why?" She finally looks at me, tears in her eyes. She didn't want me to see, but now she knows I'm not going to relent. "Why do you keep worrying about me?"

I blinked. That question threw me off. Is it really that surprising that someone could be worrying about her? Before I can say anything, I notice that Takamaki is crying. She can't stop herself now. She was vulnerable and didn't want anyone to see. But I already had, might as well offer her something in return, "Come on. Let's get out of here. How about dinner? It's on me."

She looked up at me and the expression was one of confusion. "I really don't get you… but… okay."

I think I remember a place not being too far from here. It would have to do for now. We walk in relative silence until we got to a diner. It was called Natsu Diner. We went inside and thankfully got put in a booth in the corner and out of the way. Takamaki sat on the cushioned seat while I sat across from her. She used the silence to get her bearings again before she spoke again. She looked up at me and then away before she finally had a look of resolve on her face when her eyes met mine once again.

"I don't have anything to talk about with you," she said definitively. She averts her eyes, "It was just an argument."

"With Kamoshida," I say with a neutral tone. The way her eyes snap back to me confirmed it without her having to say anything.

She looks down at her glass of water that the server had given us, "You've heard the rumors, haven't you? About Kamoshida-sensei. Everyone says we're getting it on; but that's so not true. That was him on the other line. I avoided giving him my number for the longest time. He told me to go to his place after this. You know what it means. If I turn him down, he told me he'll take my friend off as a starter. I've been telling myself this is all for Shiho's sake. But I can't take it anymore." Takamaki was looking down at her lap now. She no longer hid the fact that tears were falling from her eyes. "I've had enough of this. I hate him. But still, Shiho is my best friend. She's all I have left in that sorry excuse for a school." She looked up at me. Desperate tear-filled eyes looked to me. "Tell me, what should I do?"

I did my best to keep my composure, but under the table I was digging my fingers into my knees. What was I supposed to say or do at this point? She was asking for help. Finally, someone in this situation was making sense and wanted help and what the fuck was I doing? Being silent like a Goddamn idiot. Fuck! Isn't there anything I can do.

She wiped her tears away, "Sorry, I shouldn't have asked you that. It's not your problem." She shook her head. "What... am I saying...? I've barely even talked to you before..."

I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself. She didn't need me to be angry, she needed some comfort. A reminder that there were still people that she could talk to, "Sometimes what you need is different. For you, I'm someone new. Someone that isn't part of the equation. Because we haven't talked you feel that you could."

She gave a slight smile, "You might be right." She absently ran her hand through her hair and took hold of the glass of water in front of her. "You're so weird. Usually everyone just ignores me. Are you really a bad person as the rumor says...? You just don't seem like it."

"Who knows, I don't even know what the rumors say about me," I shrug and feel that at the very least things had lightened up.

"Really? They say you assaulted someone. That you almost killed them," Takamaki said a bit uneasy about the subject.

"I didn't even touch the guy," I let out a sigh, not wanting to go into it. "It's a bit complicated but I would never do something like that. At least, not without good reason."

She nodded, "I kinda had a feeling they were all just exaggerations. You seemed lonely-almost like you didn't belong anywhere. We're the same in that regard. Maybe that's why it was so easy for me to talk to you."

Lonely? She's lonely? Yeah, she did just tell me that Shiho was the only thing she had at school. And right now, I knew that Takamaki was really opening her heart to me. It was because she needed it. She deserves someone better to talk to though.

"Is there really no way for me to help Shiho?" Takamaki looked away. "I wish he'd just change his mind. Like, forget about me, and everything. As if something like that would ever happen."

Morgana's words came back into my head. For Shiho… would Takamaki be willing to kill him? To save her best friend… would she hesitate? No, I don't think she would. But was that the best option? Was it the only option available? If things remain as they are… then what would happen? People would continue to suffer. But somewhere along the line, something was going to snap. Something was going to change. So, could I afford to hesitate with an answer? But what gave me the right to take someone else's ability to choose away? Kamoshida was scum. He had already shown how much he thinks his way is the only way. If I waited… would something serious happen in between?

 _"Was your previous decision a mistake then?"_ the words of my Persona Arsene came to my mind.

That's what this was about? That was the truth behind that power. It was why Igor had called me that… why Arsene had said what he did. That's right, it was the words of my contract with Arsene. He lent me his power knowing I would have to come to this decision. What was justice to me?

 _"Thou who art willing to perform all sacrilegious acts for thine own justice! Call upon my name and release thy rage!"_ Arsene had given me that power based on that vow. That I would do _whatever_ I could for what I believed to be right. Become a thief; steal the distorted desires of those that cause people to suffer.

The people suffering under Kamoshida may not realize the real damage happening to them under that physical and psychological abuse. Well, I guess that settles that then. The answer to my personal dilemma had been more simplistic than I realized. Thank you, Takamaki.

I looked to her, "That would be way too convenient if that could happen."

She smiled, although her eyes were distant, "I wasn't asking for a serious response. But I do feel a bit better now. I'm gonna head home." She picked up her bag and got up.

"You don't want dinner? I did offer to pay, you know," I tell her after a moment.

Still smiling she shook her head, "I'm gonna take a rain check on that. Please, don't tell anyone what I told you, OK? I'll try and think of a way to persuade Kamoshida. Well... thanks." Then with that Takamaki walked away and left me alone.

I sighed and picked up the menu from the table. At the very least I came to a consensus in my head on what I wanted to do. Still, if I was going to become a thief… I was never going to be caught. And I was only going to do it if I felt it was right. Only for the right reasons. The right reasons to become a thief and a goddamn criminal? Give me a fucking break. Kamoshida was more than worthy of being targeted that was for fucking sure. I flipped the menu over. I wish she would have stayed for dinner. Now I feel like I just got dumped.

Now I'd just be eating… alone in a diner. What did I want to do with this situation? Could I really just sit on my hands and look away. I'd be no better than every other piece of shit person that pretends not to see something wrong happening in front of them. What a shitty ass world we live in.

A girl with brown hair in a waitress outfit that had the logo of Natsu Diner approached and noted Takamaki's exit, "Everything alright?"

I suppose it would look curious to an outsider about the events that just happened. It might have looked like I had just been dumped. But I actually felt an odd sense of clarity now. "Better, actually. She's going through a rough patch and I think I just figured out how I can really help her."

The waitress smiled, "Good to hear. Usually when I see a scene like that it's obvious what happened. At any rate, I'm Shiori and I'll be your waitress. Can I get you something to drink or do you know what you want?"

"Yeah, what is your most balanced meal?" I asked her.

"Hmm, how about a nostalgia steak with a salad?" Shiori proposed.

I nodded, "Sounds good. Oh, and just water for me."

"You got it," Shiori gave me a playful wink as she wrote down my order on her notepad before turning and walking away.

Better make sure I'm paying attention to my diet and exercising again like I did on the baseball team. I'll need to make sure I'm in top shape for this. Who knows what we would face moving forward… But I had made my decision.

* * *

 _Friday / April 15th, 2016 / Shujin Academy - Class 2-D / Morning  
_ _Ichihara Tadashi_

This morning felt no different than any other. At the very least, Takamaki, said a minor hello and acknowledged my existence. Other than that, it was just the same as always. There were dark clouds lingering outside though. I leaned forward on the desk and mindlessly looked to the gray mass out of the windows of the classroom.

Sometimes you could be jealous of the weather. It never cared what anyone thought. And it reserved the right to change its mind whenever it felt like. The weatherman might predict rain but then suddenly a wind gust blows the clouds away and brings about sunny skies. And naturally the reverse could happen just as quickly. Anyone that can predict the weather must have some sort of insider information or just controls the weather themselves. Considering the existence of the Metaverse; I really wouldn't put anything out of the realm of possibility.

"So, I assume all of you know about the separation of powers? There are three branches in our government. The National Diet is legislative, the Cabinet is executive, and the Supreme Court is judiciary. This division of power provides checks and balances, which ensures no one branch becomes unstoppable," Ushimaru-sensei was going on his lecture as always.

Seriously how far behind were these guys? I felt like I had covered all of this stuff in my first year of High School. Then again, I had been on a fast track system since they were so determined to continue my claim to fame. I was a star baseball player and top student of my class. How fun that the rumors cared very little about what I had done prior to those assault charges. I know there had been news of my school and our sudden appearance of qualifying for the koshien had gotten some coverage. Then again, this school was primarily about its education, not sports. It was known as a college prep school, after all.

That was until Kamoshida had come to this school and put their volleyball team on the map. And the school was likely surprised with the attention and also increased revenue that it brought. It wasn't surprising, money was always what would be important for a school. No school was ever cheap to run. It explains why so many people were willing to overlook Kamoshida's behavior. A little abuse and you can use Kamoshida to get ahead in life… just let him do what he wants. Such bullshit. Fuck those parents that think that way, or even the students that are okay with it.

"Have you made up your mind?" a voice came from below me. I sat back… and saw Morgana's head slightly sticking out of my desk. "No matter how much thinking you do, there's only one option. You'd be better off just listening to me."

I stared at him. "Someone is full of themselves. The world isn't that simple. Why are you in my desk?"

"Hm? Did I just hear a cat just now?" Ushimaru-sensei's voice made Morgana retreat back into my desk. "Could that rumored cat be somewhere nearby?"

Rumored cat? Does anybody do anything fucking else but spread rumors around? Jesus Christ. The rest of the class started whispering a bit louder. Somehow no one behind me noticed that I had a cat poking its head out from my desk. Goddammit, Morgana. You may be good at sneaking around but be a bit more mindful as to where and when you are.

"Settle down! We're in the middle of an important lecture," Ushimaru-sensei was irritated at the rise in volume. And then… my phone buzzed in my pocket.

Can't I just be bored through lecture in peace? I groan and pull out my phone and look at it under my desk. It just so happened to be in a spot that Morgana could see it.

 _Ryuji: It's no use... I can't think of any other way..._

Yeah, I get it. It certainly wasn't an easy subject to broach. Thanks to my time with Takamaki yesterday I had come to my own decision. Why would I expect Ryuji to do the same?

 _Tadashi: Are you cutting class?_

 _Ryuji: I can't deal with that shit right now. I mean, what're we gonna do about Kamoshida?_

I raise an eyebrow at the reply. He has no sense of priority, does he? Or even care what it might look like. Then again Ryuji was pretty straight forward with his emotions and opinions.

 _Ryuji: Do we just gotta go along with what that cat says?_

 _Ryuji: Urgh, that damn furball..._

I turn off the screen to my phone and shove it back in my pocket. He can wait till class was over.

"If he only knew I'm reading this too..." Morgana commented unnecessarily.

Can't we just get this morning over with? I don't need comments from the new cat living space of my desk either.

My gaze is suddenly moving when I notice a guy by the hall window standing up, "Hey... What's that...!?"

"Enough! This is a classroom!" Ushimaru-sensei is really losing his patience.

However, the girl behind that guy suddenly changes the situation with what she says next, "Wait... She's going to jump!"

Mishima stands up from his seat looking out, "Suzui?"

Takamaki immediately stands up, "Shiho?"

"Hey! Stay in your seats! Do not step foot outside of this room!" Ushimaru-sensei was losing control of this situation. Takamaki was on her feet already rushing out of the room. I got up, forgetting all about Morgana and followed behind her into the hallway. Ensuring that no one followed that close behind her. My reputation was useful for something at least.

There she was… as clear as could be. Suzui Shiho was standing on the roof… outside of the fence, looking to the courtyard. I couldn't see her face clearly, but that body language only said one thing. Without a word… she jumped. The halls erupted in screams and Takamaki put her hands to her face.

"No... Why...?" Takamaki could barely put words together. "Shiho...!" Takamaki then turned right into me. I steadied her and then moved so she could get by, allowing her to run past me. Not even stopping to say anything to me, or the fact that I had touched her.

I stepped to the window and looked outside while many other students were looking away. Objectively speaking the roof of the school was not that high up. If Suzui was looking to kill herself… then she would pretty much have to land on her head. I could see her from here. She was still moving. She was still alive. Not without injury though. If I had to guess… something about it was off. Takamaki… I needed to get to her. I turned and standing there was Ryuji.

"H-Hey! What's goin' on?" Ryuji asked as I moved past him towards the stairs.

"Suzui Shiho jumped off of the roof," I said as I made my way down to the first floor. Everyone was clogging the way out to the courtyard though. "We need to get to the courtyard."

"Right, this way! We'll cut over to the Practice Building," Ryuji took the lead and pushed a line through the hall as we made it to the Practice Building. I ignored the conversations in the hall and followed Ryuji as we made our way to the courtyard. It didn't take long and before long we had pushed our way through to be able to see what was going on.

"Class is still in session," a teacher was wasting his time telling students this.

"Shiho," Takamaki was in front of us.

I heard the snapping of a photo from next to me. I reached over and grabbed the guys phone.

"Hey, what the hell?" the guy looked at me. And I gave him the most pissed off glare I had probably ever given an individual. "Hey, you're that transfer student, right?" He was instantly leery of me. Who would have thought the rumors would be useful for something.

I quickly deleted the pictures of Shiho on his phone and then shoved it into his hand. "Take another picture and I'll break your fucking hands." Then him and several other students turn and ran off.

"What the hell's wrong with these people?" Ryuji was pissed too.

"We need someone to go with her... Are there any teachers around?" the paramedic was looking for someone in charge. The teachers were too busy trying to get their students to go back to class and pretend this wasn't happening.

I stepped forward, "She'll go with her. She'll have all the contact information you need for Suzui's parents." I was indicating Takamaki. She looked to me. "Go. You don't want to be here right now."

She nodded and moved forward. The Paramedic allowing Takamaki to go to Shiho's side.

"Shiho... Why?" I could hear Takamaki ask.

"Ann? I'm sorry. I... I can't take this... anymore..." Shiho spoke weakly. I could only hear it because I had moved closer to speak with the paramedic. But whatever she said next I couldn't hear… but I could see the effect on Takamaki's face.

"Kamoshida?" Takamaki must have been repeating what Shiho had said.

"Sir, please. Get them out of here," I turned to the paramedic.

"We'll take care of them. Thanks, young man," the paramedic seemed to appreciate that I had taken charge as the teachers seemed unwilling to do so. He then turned and with the help of another paramedic, loaded Shiho into the back of the ambulance. Takamaki, who was now holding Shiho's hand, was with her. A few moments later, the ambulance was gone, and now it was just the dull roar of the students. How many of these assholes had pictures of Shiho in such a state?

I was going to lose my cool if I didn't watch it. "Mother Fucker," I slammed my fist into my palm. A release of some tension would help me a little, but I just wanted to find Kamoshida and knock the everloving shit out of him. Especially if he had ever touched Suzui Shiho. Considering the events leading to this, there would be no other explanation.

"Ah... Ah..." I heard from close by. I turned to see Mishima in the crowd, but he was running away.

"That guy..." Ryuji noticed him too. "Hey, wasn't Mishima acting weird?"

"Now that I think about it...he knew right away with only a glance who it was that was on the roof. He knows something about this. Why Suzui would do this," I shared a glance with Ryuji.

"We're gonna make him talk this time," Ryuji said as we both chased off after him only a few beats behind him. Mishima was having a rough time getting around people. Fortunately, Ryuji and I have a bad reputation. People move out of our way. So, we were able to make up ground rather quickly.

Ryuji sprinted ahead and we easily trapped Mishima and blocked his escape. When Mishima tried to get by, I instead placed a hand on his shoulder and pushed him against the lockers on the wall. I was surprised how little resistance he had against it. I thought that he would be somewhat strong from being on the volleyball team.

"That hurts," Mishima says reflexively.

"Why'd you run like that? Huh!?" Ryuji asks. I think we were both past the point of being subtle. Someone was going to give us some fucking straight answers today. Especially after what we just saw.

"I didn't run..." Mishima looked away.

Ryuji slammed his fist on the locker, "She jumped and tried to kill herself!"

"L-Leave me alone..." Mishima tried to back away from us.

"You want to tell us that you don't fucking know anything? Do you not even care about Suzui-san? Don't you understand that we want to help? Just tell us what is going on!" I did my best to keep myself under control

"He's right! We ain't tryin' to get you busted. We won't say you talked either..." Ryuji calmed down himself and tried to reason with him.

"Suzui..." Mishima then grabbed his head. "She was called out by Kamoshida-sensei."

"Wait, what!?" Ryuji was shocked.

My had formed a fist. Please tell me I'm wrong. Don't let this be fucking true.

"I was called by him a number of times too... to the teacher's room," Mishima spoke after a moment. "It wasn't just me or Suzui either. He'd nominate someone when he was in a bad mood... and hit them."

That mother fucker.

"So the physical punishment thing was for real..." Ryuji was making a fist as well.

"But yesterday, he called Suzui out of the blue. She didn't make any mistakes or anything..." Mishima was hanging his head. "Kamoshida-sensei seemed really irritated that day, so it must've been... worse than usual..."

No… Takamaki... He couldn't get what he wanted out of her… so he took the next best thing. Takamaki's best friend. To satisfy his urges and get back at the someone who didn't bend to his whims. There was no winner or best-case scenario this time. It was a lose lose. If Takamaki had done what Kamoshida wanted then… she would have been sexually abused, no worse. Raped. Because of that… Suzui was made to be the victim. The target of Kamoshida's rage for him not getting what he wants.

"He didn't...!" Ryuji turned. "That son of a bitch...!" Ryuji took off down the hall in a sprint.

Mishima's eyes widened. I took off to follow Ryuji. I didn't have to guess where he was going. He was off to find Kamoshida. And a part of me really wanted to be right there with him. I followed Ryuji up the stairs, and I noticed him make a straight line for the end of the hall. I didn't even realize that Mishima was still with me when I entered the office.

Kamoshida was sitting at his desk, as if nothing in the school was happening. This was likely not a good scenario for us. However, I was too pissed off to simply walk away.

"You bastard! The hell did you do to that girl!?" Ryuji really doesn't have a filter. He might be a fool at times, but I was damn proud to have someone so earnest as my friend.

"What are you talking about?" Kamoshida waved us off as if we were just a nuisance.

"Don't play dumb with me!" Ryuji kicked over a nearby chair to extenuate his point.

Kamoshida turned, "That is enough!"

"What you did... wasn't coaching," Mishima spoke. I blinked and looked at him. Was he really going to stand up to his teacher now? Better late than never, I suppose. Even Ryuji looked to Mishima in surprise.

"What did you say?" Kamoshida was daring Mishima now. This was the moment that decided how it would go for Mishima. If he backed down now...Kamoshida would likely let him go without anything negative. Well, any more than the punishment he already got.

Mishima didn't back down, "You... You ordered me to call Suzui here... I can only imagine what you did to her...!"

Kamoshida got to his feet, his demeanor changing slightly. "You're going on and on about things you have no proof of... Basically, you're simply making these claims because you can't be a regular on the team, right?"

"That's not what this is about...!" Mishima was getting more confident as this continued.

"Even if it is exactly as you imagine it to be, hypothetically speaking... what can you do? We just received a call from the hospital. Suzui's in a coma, and her chances of recovery are slim... How would someone like that make a statement?" Kamoshida feigned as if he actually cared about her. "There's no chance of her getting better, I hear... The poor girl."

I didn't believe anything he said. However, it was no bluff that he was not concerned about the situation. No matter what we might say...we were still the ones at a disadvantage. His word over ours...and our word meant nothing compared to an Olympic Medalist and teacher that had significant accomplishments on his resume. Even if Shiho testified after regaining consciousness… Kamoshida was more likely to be believed that her.

"No... That can't be..." Mishima shook his head.

"You goddamn...!" Ryuji's anger was basically rolling off of him like an aura. As angry as I had been before this moment, I realized that this was no longer the way we got at him. This wasn't how we fought him. This was only how things got worse.

"This, again...? Does this mean we need to have yet another case of 'self-defense'?" Kamoshida was taunting Ryuji. Hold on… Kamoshida had injured Ryuji? I mean I knew that something had happened to clearly make Ryuji hate him… but Kamoshida had directly hurt him?

"You shut your mouth, you son of a bitch," Ryuji was ready to punch him but I stepped forward and grabbed Ryuji by his wrist. He looked at me, "Why're you stoppin' me?"

"Calm down. This isn't how we do this," I say after a moment.

"But still!" Ryuji was still angry but at least he listened to me.

"Oh? You're stopping him? What a surprise," Kamoshida gleefully taunted us. "There's no need to hold back. Why not attack me? Ohhh, you can't. Hahaha, but of course you can't."

"Think whatever you want fuckface," I said with little emotion, focusing on what I needed to do, pushing out how much I wanted to fucking kill this man. That wouldn't help Takamaki or Suzui. I needed to be someplace I could actually help.

"Everyone present right now... will be expelled. I'm reporting all of you at the next board meeting," Kamoshida went back to his desk and sat down.

Expulsion huh? Fun times. Done that already. And what do you know, I'll get expelled without even hitting someone or doing anything wrong, again. Nope just me kicking over a hornet's nest that just belongs to the guy with the stupidest fucking hair and gets his jollies by torturing his players. And let's not forget the sexual abuse or possibly rape that causes a girl to try and commit suicide. Not just any asshole but a fucking prick and pedophile. If there was ever someone deserving of getting a complete fucking beatdown it was him. But that would be pointless and, in the end, accomplish nothing.

"You can't make a decision like that...!" Mishima stood forward.

Kamoshida turned in his chair, "Who would seriously consider what scum like you say? You threatened me too, Mishima, so you're just as responsible."

"Huh?" Mishima eyes widened.

"To think you didn't know why I kept someone as talentless as you on the team. You act like you're a victim, but you leaked his criminal records, didn't you? It's all over the internet, correct? How terrible." Kamoshida was trying to provoke me or make me angry at Mishima, right? What is he a fucking kindergärtner?

"He told me to do it. I had no choice," Mishima fell to his knees. Did he think I was going to get mad or something? Honestly, it didn't matter to me if the whole world knew.

Kamoshida was laughing like an idiot, "Now, are we finished here? You're all expelled! You're done for; your futures are mine to take. Now get out of my sight."

"I can't believe this asshole's gettin' away with this," Ryuji looked to me.

"He hasn't gotten away with anything yet," I met his gaze.

It took him before he realized what I meant. "Oh right. We have that!" Oh, Ryuji, as blunt and oblivious as always.

"Huh? Have you lost your minds? I don't understand what garbage like you are thinking but go ahead and try. All you can do is wait for your disposal though..." Kamoshida was smug. We helped Mishima out and left the PE faculty office.

Mishima had lost all semblance of strength and was like a ghost as he went back to the classroom.

"We'll meet up after school," I said as I started to head back. "At least try to go to your afternoon classes okay?"

"How can you focus after all that shit?" Ryuji calls out to me.

I didn't reply and just kept walking. Life used to be a simple affair. Get up, go to morning practice, go to class, get lunch, go to afternoon class, go to after school practice, go home, do homework, study, head to bed, rinse and repeat. Nothing bad ever happened in my life. Everything just worked out. That was ruined by one man. I was thrown into a new city, a new life. Now, another shitty ass adult was going to ruin my life simply for getting in their way. But if there was a way to flip this on its head... Then Kamoshida was going to learn just how much of a bitch karma could be. And I was going to be there when it happened.

* * *

 _Friday / April 15th, 2016 / Shibuya - Outside Natsu Diner / After School  
_ _Okumura Haru_

I felt numb, as if the events of the day couldn't have been real. And yet, there was no denying that one of my underclassmen had tried to kill herself. And the prevailing rumor all revolved around the volleyball team and their coach, Kamoshida. I was fortunate that the only time I had to interact with that man was during my PE class, which thankfully wasn't that long and for the most part never said much to me. None of that could change what had happened today though.

Suzui Shiho was her name that had jumped from the roof. And she had lived through it. She likely broke her legs, maybe an arm? How many injuries would someone sustain from that kind of fall? I shouldn't think about it… it… it just makes me angry.

How could something like this happen in my school?

"Haru?" a familiar voice made me look up.

"Oh, Shiori-chan. Hi," I said, my thoughts clearly not focused.

"You okay? You were spacing out," she stepped towards me.

I shake my head, "Sorry, something happened at school today. It's hard for me to fathom."

"What happened?" it wasn't Shiori, but Naozumi who asked me this as he appeared from behind his sister. I found myself looking into his hazel eyes and for some reason a part of me was able to calm down.

"A girl jumped off the roof of the school today," I spoke honestly. Their reaction was immediate.

"Oh my God," Shiori gasped.

"Yeah…" I hung my head. It wasn't like I knew the girl but… I was frustrated at the situation. That I could go to a school where someone could feel so powerless that the solution was to throw themselves off the roof. How could anyone just be okay with that? How could anyone talk bad about the girl? Don't they realize that there was a bigger issue they should be concerned with? In all likelihood, the majority of the students, didn't care. And that hurt me more than anything else.

"Come on. Let's go inside," Naozumi said as he motioned for us to step inside of Natsu Diner.

I follow him in and we move up to the bar. Naozumi sitting at one of the seats, and I take one next to him. I place my bag on the empty seat next to me. Just a day or so ago I had been so energetic when I came here to see Naozumi but today just wasn't that kind of day.

"Did you know her?" Naozumi asked.

I shook my head, "No, I don't, but I know she is on the volleyball team. What was upsetting was how a lot of the other students acted. Some were even taking pictures of her! Fortunately, there was a guy that snagged his phone and probably deleted those pictures, scared a bunch of the other students too. Nao-chan, why do people do that?"

"More often than not, it is actually because they don't know how to react to the situation. A girl just tried to commit suicide, and so they do what they can to actually avoid that fact. It doesn't excuse their behavior but sometimes in the face of something like this, people tend to try and brush it off as if it is nothing," Naozumi gave me a serious answer. Yeah, I knew that… I just wished I had been wrong. So many people that want to deny what they were seeing in front of them. What kind of horrible place was I going to school at? I felt so alone in that moment.

"Should we go visit her?" Shiori asked.

"I know what you are thinking, Shiori. And that is a double-edged sword. Getting visitors can definitely make someone feel better. At the same time, she doesn't know us, and she might get a different idea from the situation and misinterpret why we are there. She'll want to see family and friends, not a bunch of people she doesn't know," Naozumi said and looked to me. "That being said, I don't think it would be completely out of place for us to check on her well-being from time to time. And after a few weeks, I think she'll be more susceptible to seeing other people that are concerned for her."

"So you're saying we should wait?" Shiori sighed as she pulled out cups from behind the bar and put them in front of us. "You should have just said that from the beginning, Onii-chan."

"I simply wanted to impress upon you that there is a level of tact you need for a situation like this. You may have good intentions, but there is no doubt a lot that this girl has gone through. She did try to take her own life after all. She lived through that, and now she'll have to deal with the people that will no doubt judge her for that action. In this situation the last thing she needs is people she doesn't know coming in. I doubt she would believe anything we have to say. She needs time, and the people that care about her," Naozumi said it so easily but I could feel the pain in his words. I could feel it in myself.

I know why it affected me so… Because I know that on a rare occasion, I've had a passing thought that I don't want to admit. But now it came under focus. Would anyone care if I was gone? Would the world move on if I were to die? Such a stupid line of thought that had on occasion made its way into my mind. Naozumi would never forgive me… neither would Shiori. Even still, I'm sure Suzui Shiho had close friends too that were bound to wonder why she would attempt suicide. Probably because of things she was keeping to herself… things she couldn't tell even those close to her.

Was I any better?

"Here you go, Haru-chan!" Shiori put a glass that was filled. I took a drink from it without much thought.

"Mm… root beer! Thanks, Shiori-chan!" I smile as the taste hits my tongue. Maybe a little silly but something like this was different than what I had at home. Things just tasted better when I was with Naozumi and his family. "Sorry about bringing the mood down."

Naozumi shook his head, "Considering what had happened, it would be unlike you to just ignore it."

"I know but I came here to help talk about advertising ideas for the diner," I did feel bad about it, but I also did feel a lot better after talking about it with them. Like Naozumi had said though… there wasn't much I could do for Suzui Shiho directly. But considering the people involved, I'm not sure I could do anything to change things at the school either. I shook my head, trying to shake off those thoughts for now. "How have the flyers been working out?"

Naozumi glanced at me, probably considering if I really wanted to drop the previous topic but then he went with it. He shrugged, "Well enough, I suppose. We have seen some increase in customers but nothing significant that will turn the month around. Also, I did look into our advertising and as Shiori thought… our advertising hasn't been showing up. They assured me that there wasn't an issue and that clients should be getting it, but I had a bad feeling about the arrangement, so I canceled the contract with them."

"You think that…" I stopped. The immediate thought that came to my mind was that my Father was the one pressuring the advertising company to ensure that Natsu Diner would not get its ads out into the wild. Considering what my Father had done to buy up his competition, I wouldn't put it past him. Though he assured me it was all due to the wishes of the board of directors for the company. Even still, my Father was the majority shareholder, he would have been able to stop it if he wanted. The fact that the deal had occurred was not something I could forget. I didn't understand my Father's intentions so I could not offer anything in this regard. "Nao-chan, do you think going with a different company would work?"

He shook his head, "Unlikely. I've looked into doing so ourselves. Our website is easy to maintain but it doesn't help if it doesn't show up when people are using search engines to look for nearby restaurants. Having a better social media presence could help though."

"I could handle that," Shiori spoke up. "Onii-chan is pretty bad with social media."

I couldn't help but giggle… there was no way anything Naozumi posted would ever trend on social media. He was too… elegant, or proper in anything he did. I mean it was always good to be professional, but for marketing it was more important to be relatable. "Should definitely leave this to Shiori-chan."

"I feel I should be insulted that I couldn't handle something like that but I admit that Shiori is much more adept at those things than I am. The only ones I am in constant contact on my phone or anything else is the two of you to begin with," he shrugged. "In that case how about I leave it to the two of you? We can run that deal we were talking about as a means to draw in customers."

"Leave it to me, Onii-chan!" Shiori gave a mock salute. "But that can't be it, right?"

"There is only so much I can do. Without any hard numbers I'm not sure what deals we can offer without just losing more money. Right now, though… an increase in customers is enough to be okay with a loss in profit. We need an emphasis to all four locations on customer service. I know we called it out previously in other meetings, but customer retention is very important right now," Naozumi was definitely thinking hard about this issue. And although he had recently started college for business, he knew very little about practical application.

"How about adding a new menu item? Maybe something seasonal?" I suggested.

"That would be a good point to advertise… but is there anything in April that would be a seasonal food?" Naozumi considered my suggestion.

"Some places do have a spring themed menu. Not necessarily anything new," Shiroi pointed out.

"Oo, something pink because cherry blossoms are blooming. A desert maybe? I vote for a strawberry sundae," I said with an overemphasized nod.

"You just want another desert on the menu," Naozumi looked at me. He knew me so well, it made me smile.

"It's a good idea," Shiori chimed in. "It could be part of a spring menu."

"Fresh menus and spring-oriented designs… alright. Okay, both of those work. I'll see if I can't get a new design for the menu that would be easy to implement from a friend of mine. And we'll talk with the chefs to get their ideas on how they can decorate or theme some of the meals," Naozumi nodded as he was writing a bunch on a notepad, he had grabbed from the other-side of the bar.

I couldn't help but smile as I watched Naozumi writing. As usual he had a serious look on his face as he did so, losing himself to his thoughts. He had been this way for as long as I known him. He could lose himself in whatever he was doing. Something about it made me feel so at ease. As if his focus eased the worry in my heart I had felt before arriving here. And maybe… just for a little while, the world wouldn't feel like such a horrible place.

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **I know I said this would be updated every 6 months, and well this is 6 months later from the last update, I believe. I am hoping to keep that schedule but who knows if I will change this story or not depending on the events of Royal or not. Plus a new character and interactions can make it appealing to do so. But the sequel to P5 is Scramble and supposedly that is actually based after the vanilla P5 and not Royal. Which means Kasumi isn't part of that story. So its weird situation. Although I'm no stranger to putting in characters that were there before if any of you have read Last Symphony. So it won't necessarily stop that if I decide to also write the events of Scramble. Anyway, just want to say that this fic could miss my intended chapter release date... but it's hard to tell... so... sorry in advance either way.**

 **There is little in the way of deviation of the story so far in Bitter Fool, other than Tadashi's attitude towards the situation and being more outspoken about it. The majority of which I change will come much later in the story. And I hope that everyone is with me to see it. Even if it might not be for quite some time before we get there.**

 **As for Naozumi and Haru, I think I talked about it before but I wanted to give Haru something, or rather someone in her life that meant more to her. Because she still has a good amount of freedom in her life, as evidence of being able to join the Phantom Thieves without much suspicion from her Father. So it always seemed like her Father never paid too much attention to her. And Naozumi, I felt was needed for a reason that will be more further explored in later chapters. So I think a lot of people might have some problems that aspects of Haru in this fic will be out of character compared to how she is in the game. But this is because of the fact that I've changed parts of her childhood with the existence of Naozumi and his family being a part of Haru's life. And well, that would have naturally made some differences in her character.**

 **Thanks for your time, and I hope you'll come back when the next chapter eventually goes up.**


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